Lambton County Council has approved an additional $500,000 investment in Bio-industrial Innovation Canada (BIC).
In exchange, BIC will provide the county with an equity interest in three of its investments; Comet Bio refining, Origin Materials and Benefuel.
St. Clair Township Mayor Steve Arnold didn't support the direction.
"I have a problem with supporting a lot of private industry at the county tax base," says Arnold. "What do you do with the rest of the industries that you're not supporting. There's a lot more people that have gone through that organization than three."
The Sarnia-based not-for-profit, which holds and oversees investments into companies involved in the commercialization of new technologies, requested $4.5-million in funds in March 2017 in order to leverage a matching contribution from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).
$2.5-million of it was advanced last year in the form of a loan to be repaid over five years.
The $500,000 commitment, which was approved Wednesday in the form of an equity investment, is down from the $2-million originally requested last March.
BIC has told county council it will not seek further investment funding.