New North Bay company receives funding from province

North Bay company gets cash from province A North Bay company that makes heated Muskoka chairs received more than $1 million from the provincial government Friday.

To be able to sit outside on a cold afternoon or night and still be comfortable is what WRMTH is all about.

The new northern Ontario company makes plug-in, heated Muskoka chairs so people can sit outside in comfort on a cooler evening and even into the winter.

"We have a patented heating core that we developed for the furniture. We have a number of other patents that we've scheduled around the technology as we build it out," said WRMTH co-founder John Pomeroy.

"They use electricity to heat. At the moment they must be plugged in … In the future we are considering batteries but there (are) some challenges with that because we want to use these outdoors where it's cold and batteries don't like the cold. So we will have to work around some of those."

WRMTH received $1,344,493 in NOHFC funding and the hope is that more tech-based jobs will come to North Bay.

"North Bay really is the gateway to the north,” said Pomeroy.

“It's on the major highways in Ontario. It's got high-speed internet everywhere, which is terrific, and it's got two fantastic schools. It really sets up to be a perfect place to do this. It's big enough that there's an employment base we can rely on and small enough that we can really get our arms around the development.”

"This is a really interesting growth sector,” said North Bay MPP Vic Fedeli.

“When you think of ThinkOn, One Red Maple, now WRMTH, these are tech plays and I think the way of the future. (It’s) really important for our graduating university and college students to know they can end up with a tech job here in the city.”

Pomeroy told CTV News his company will use the funding to improve its permanent location and to purchase new equipment.