By Paul Morden, from www.theobserver.ca The Observer
Sarnia-Lambton’s economy has taken a beating since the recession, with business closings and job losses, but there is hope, says the man charged with attracting industry to the community.
“We do believe the community has a bright future,” George Mallay, general manager of the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership said while providing an update on the agency’s plans for the coming years.
But, he added its efforts are facing the challenge of a “slow-growth environment” in Ontario and across North America.
As the year was coming to a close, Imperial Oil confirmed its shutting down a small unit at its Sarnia site that will impact 60 jobs, and Ethyl Canada closed its operation near Corunna and sold the site.
Mallay said the Ethyl site closed after it lost its supply of feedstock, and the other closings in recent years involved operations that weren’t globally competitive.
But, Mallay added, he believes Sarnia-Lambton is actually better positioned now that it has been in a long time to grow what the partnership has been calling the community’s “hybrid chemical complex.”
That includes existing petrochemical operations in Chemical Valley, as well as new bio-chemistry ventures the partnership, and others, have been actively pursuing and encouraging in recent years.
“We’re seeing a growing number of bio-based companies showing an interest in our community,” Mallay said.
Along with oil coming into the community from Western Canada, Chemical Valley is now also being fed by new supplies of natural gas being piped in from shale deposits in the eastern U.S., he said.
One of Sarnia-Lambton’s unique advantages going forward is actually the industrial land sitting in the heart of infrastructure-rich Chemical Valley that was been left vacant by past cutbacks and plant closings.
TransAlta and Lanxess both have turned vacant sites into industrial parks they are working to market to new industries.
At Lanxess, BioAmber is building a $125-million plant to make succinic acid from corn sugar. That’s expected to create 60 new jobs once the plant is built and operating.
Mallay said new industries can reduce their capital costs by 20% when they set up shop on those existing industrial sites.
There are also pilot projects located at the Western Research Park in Sarnia officials are hoping could eventually lead to new commercial operations, and new jobs.
At the same time, Mallay said the partnership continues to pursue call centres to replace jobs lost when several of the operations shut down in Sarnia.
“We believe we can be successful in that industry again,” he said.
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