Biochemical industry key to growth by 2015: SLEP Biochemical industry key to grown by 2015: SLEP
By Heather Wright, www.sarniathisweek.com Sarnia This Week
SARNIA-LAMBTON – By 2015 the Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership wants to see three new bio-based energy companies build plants in the region and 250 small businesses created.
That’s two of the key points of SLEP’s three-year strategic plan which was recently unveiled.
SLEP General Manager, George Mallay, says fossil fuels and the industries which support them will always play a vital role in the region’s economy but biochemical industries will be a strong growth area. He points to companies such as Solutions4CO2, which will capture carbon dioxide to help grow algae to produce bio pharmaceuticals and bio fuel, and BioAmber, which will use plants to create a bio-succinic acid to create plastics and things like spandex, as examples of that growth.
“There is real opportunity on the bio-side,” says Mallay. “There has been no real innovation since the 1970s in plastics…now bio is big. That’s where there is opportunity for Sarnia,” he says comparing it to Dow arriving in the community in the 1940s, sparking industrial growth.
Mallay says SLEP will also continue to help local industrial companies find ways to build equipment for Alberta’s oil sands project. That will include finding a harbour and a dedicated shipping route to that harbour for large equipment.
Mallay says growing small business will also be key in growing the local economy in the next three years. He says SLEP wants to see 250 new businesses, supporting 400 employees, by 2015.
Mallay says as the call center industry declines – NCO is set to close its 400 employee shop in Sarnia this spring – there are other opportunities. He points to large companies, such as Bell Canada and Sears, who have moved their call centers from places such as India back to North America.
“We’ve marketed the NCO property to 20 different site selectors,” says Mallay expressing hope that another IT or data processing firm will be interested.
SLEP also wants to see development in the agriculture community, specifically food production. SLEP has set a goal of attracting one food processor to the region by 2015. “We have access to lots of water (for food processing) and there are lots of sites in the county and the city.
The three-year plan also targets immigration growth above the provincial average, helping Lambton College get funding for a new medical facility and increase the university presence in the community.
The plan also calls for a rebranding of the community.
SLEP Chair, Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley, says the ambitious goals can be met pointing to the fact that 10 years ago things such as the Research Park were only an idea.
“We’ve had struggles in the past,” he says. “Sarnia-Lambton can truly be a renaissance area in the future…We will prove the planners wrong about population growth and we will prove people outside this community which mock its image.”
Sarnia This Week Article ID# 3543022
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