The outgoing general manager of the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership (SLEP) is hopeful his replacement will guide our community to a future in automation and information technology.
George Mallay, who retires at the end of the month after 21 years, made his final presentation to Sarnia council during its Corporate Priorities / Strategic Planning Meeting on Monday.
He says Sarnia-Lambton has to move toward employee intensive industries.
"We do have to get more going around automation, information technology, process control and we have tried a couple of times to bring companies to the table here in the community to try and help kick start that -- but we haven't been successful in finding a champion to do that," says Mallay.
He says that kind of collaboration needs private sector capital and a private sector champion.
"If I was to stay at SLEP, I would make some significant changes at this point in time. I also think that given BIC [Bioindustrial Innovation Canada] has its money, given that the hospital has its money and so does Lambton College... the time is right for this community to put together a strategy, have some significant initiatives related to automation and information technology around it and go to the governments and get another pot of money," says Mallay.
He says SLEP is currently working to recruit 29 companies, many in the bio/shale sector.
"About eight of them are gas to liquids, gas to chemicals type projects. There's one petro-chemical type project and the balance are industrial bio-type companies. Most of the projects are anywhere from 50 to 60 jobs, $350-million to $500-million," says Mallay.
He says 14 prospects have visited the community and five have options on properties.
"The one thing that we haven't seen here that I would like to see more of, if I look at other communities, we have not had start ups that have resulted in large job creation," says Mallay.
However, Mallay says local companies are becoming more aggressive at competing on a global scale and three local fabricators are expanding as a result.
He encouraged city councillors to keep lobbying for the oversize load corridor.
While Mallay's replacement has yet to be announced, he believes a candidate has been selected and an employment agreement was being worked out.