January 18, 2017 – Barbara Simpson, The Observer – Sarnia-Lambton: A technology leader?
That’s the image a delegation of Sarnia-Lambton community leaders plan to sell in Taiwan next month.
Representatives from the local education, economic development and municipal government sectors will be travelling to the island nation to attend this year’s Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) conference set for Feb. 9.
Sarnia-Lambton was recently named a Smart21 Community – an honour bestowed by the ICF – for the second consecutive year for the community’s work embracing new technologies as part of the new global broadband economy.
Only 21 out of a pool of nearly 400 communities were chosen as a ‘Smart’ community this year by the Intelligent Community Forum, a non-profit policy research organization.
While the local delegation plans to use the trip to help Sarnia-Lambton land a spot on the organization’s coveted Top7 Intelligent Communities list, time will also be spent networking with Taiwanese ‘Smart’ communities, said George Mallay, general manager of the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership.
“In Taiwan, we will be visiting those smart cities and learning from their best practices,” he said Wednesday.
The local delegation headed to Taiwan includes Mallay, Lambton County Warden Bill Weber, Lambton College dean of research Mehdi Sheikhzadeh, county CAO Ron Van Horne, City of Sarnia economic development director Peter Hungerford and county IT manager Robert Wilks.
Mallay shared details of the trip – planned for Feb. 3 through to 11 – at a Wednesday committee meeting of county council. He also spoke about the ongoing research and technological work that helped Sarnia-Lambton land the Smart21 Community honour again this year.
Communities were judged in seven different areas, including on its rates of broadband access and knowledge workforce, as well as on innovation and digital equity.
While some pockets of rural Sarnia-Lambton still remain without affordable and reliable Internet access, Mallay said independent telecom providers have stepped up to meet the need.
“There’s no question there’s room for broadband improvements across our community… but we’re having a lot of success in deploying technology through our communities,” Mallay said.
He pointed, for example, to Lambton College recently being named the top Ontario research college through to the work of a variety of organizations who help make the community Canada’s largest clean-tech incubator.
“Globally we are recognized as bio-hybrid energy complex and we’ll reach that point where we get real takeoff and create jobs,” Mallay said.
Designations – like the Smart21 community honour – are a “powerful new tool for economic development,” he added.
“It’s helping to recast our community in a different light.”
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