One day a week, a young man from our community comes to my shop. He has been with me about a year. He started with the tools and how a piece of steel becomes a knife, then moved on to marketing and restoration. This month he started producing his own knives. I was prouder than any grown man should be about a knife.
I also trained him as a handyman. Small repairs and basic maintenance are the jobs that never make the news, and they quietly decide whether a senior can stay in the home they have lived in for decades. In a township with long roads and an aging population, those skills are how neighbours stay neighbours.
This is not a campaign idea. I have worked with young adults most of my adult life. I grew up in Cape Breton, left at seventeen for school in Kingston, and found my way to North Frontenac, where I stayed. Mentoring is not complicated. You show someone how, you let them get it wrong, and you stay close enough to catch them.
Credit where it is due
Councillor Mike Hage brought a youth entrepreneurship report to council in March 2026, within weeks of joining council. It looked at ways to keep young people here, including start-up support, shared workspace and a volunteer mentor network. Council received it and sent it to the Economic Development Task Force. The Task Force looked at it and pointed to the programs Frontenac Business Services already offers. That is a fair answer, and I am glad the question went on the public record.
What already exists
Frontenac Business Services in Harrowsmith offers free one-on-one business advice and financing for businesses in the county.
Summer Company (students aged 15 to 29) offers grants up to $3,000. Starter Company Plus (adults 18 and over) includes training, a mentor and a grant up to $5,000. Both are provincial programs.
Futurpreneur offers financing and a mentor to people aged 18 to 39.
Check each program's current details before you apply.
The gap
Programs only help if you know they exist. A teenager in Ompah or Cloyne may never hear of them. And a form is not a person. What is missing is a local face: a neighbour with a trade who will give a few hours a month, and a bridge between our schools and our trades.
What I would work toward
- One plain-language page, online and at the Township office, listing every program in one place.
- A volunteer list of local mentors from the trades, small business and the arts.
- Stronger links with our local schools, using events the Township already holds.
If elected, I would bring this to the Task Force and sit down with Mike, since he started the conversation.
Your part
If you have a trade, a business or a skill, and a few hours a month for a young person, tell me. If you are young and want to learn something, tell me that too. Message me here or email art@arthurhannigan.com.
Art Hannigan
Candidate for Mayor, Township of North Frontenac