Emerging northern leaders need leadership institute: former mayor

More leadership training opportunitiesshould be available to emerging leaders in the north.

That's the message from former Sudbury mayorDavid Courtemanche, who is helping to organize the second annual Leadership Summit at LaurentianUniversity.

"When you talk to a lot of local businesses ... oftentimes, they're actually sending theirpeople out of town to get access to those kinds of [leadership training] opportunities at other universities in Ontario, across Canada and into the U.S.," he said.

Courtemanche, who is also the president and founder ofLeading Minds,a business consulting firm in Sudbury, said there is demand in the north for home-grown training.

"I think there's growing consensus that, here in northern Ontario, and specifically at Laurentian University, there's a great opportunity to develop a leadership institute that can service those needs."

David Courtemanchespoke with CBC Sudbury Morning North radio show host Markus Schwabe on Thursday.

Morning North6:09Leadership summit in Sudbury

We can all be a leader... at least that's what people hosting a leadership summit in Sudbury believe. We spoke about the summit with David Courtemanche. He's one of the organizers and a former leader himself as mayor of Sudbury.

The Laurentian University Leadership Summit runsOct.16-17.