Sarnia-Lambton's Skilled Trades Ready.

Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer.

As Nova Chemicals gears up for $2-billion in construction in St. Clair Township, the president of the Sarnia-Lambton Building and Construction Trades Council says its members are ready to supply the skilled workforce the project needs.

Nova has begun preparing the site of a new polyethylene plant to be built over the next three years on Rokeby Line, next to its Corunna plant where work is also planned to double its production.

Nova has said 800 to 1,000 construction workers are expected to be on the site at the peak of activity on the projects.

“We’ve got lots of folks,” council president John Swart said about the approximately 5,000 skilled trades workers its members have in Sarnia-Lambton.

“And, we can still draw from the rest of Ontario.”

Swart added local unions “are actively” maintaining their ranks of apprentices and “constantly making sure we have the journeymen in place into the next three or four years.”

Maintenance turnarounds were completed recently at local Suncor and Shell sites and currently there is some unemployment among skilled construction trades in the area, Swart said.

“That’s the nature of our business.”

Nova Chemicals held an open house in Corunna this week to provide the public with an update on its projects.

The company said site preparations for the new plant are underway, with approximately 50 local tradespeople currently on the site.

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Image. Public domain.

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Bayside Concept Revealed.

Looking west along Lochiel St., from the Bayside Mall entrance. Zach Neal photo.

Tyler Kula, Sarnia Observer.

Lochiel Street could stretch to Vidal in a few years’ time if everything goes according to plan for the owners of the Bayside Centre.

Seasons Retirement Communities intends to make a pedestrian walkway through the heart of the current mall, amid an ambitious, more-than-$40-million scheme to overhaul the long-half-empty structure and build a 12-storey retirement complex.

“We’re nowhere near being finalized,” said Seasons CEO Mike Lavallée, updating city council and the community on the latest Monday.

Negotiations are still pending to move the County of Lambton Shared Services Centre – housing, Ontario Works, court services and other county services – to to-be renovated mall space south of where the Lochiel Street extension would run, Lavallée said.

The retirement complex, to be built to the north atop a two-storey parking garage, so building tenants could see above the skyline and to the water, would come after, he said.

There are also plans to improve the ramp and add new lighting to the underground parking garage, and to make it accessible 24/7 with an automated entry and pay system, he said.

“I think if we are successful in our concepts and with our negotiations that we should begin construction in the fall and find ourselves with a completed and completely renovated downtown core by 2022.”

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Images. Zach Neal photos and a handout site-rendering from Seasons.

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Fernco Looks to Expand in Sarnia.

Tyler Kula, Sarnia Observer.

An investment in business park land the City of Sarnia made 15 years ago off Modeland Road may finally be hitting pay dirt.

A proposal comes to city council Monday from Sarnia-based Fernco Connectors Ltd., looking to buy a sliver of the about 214-acre parcel.

Purchased in 2003, it mostly U-shapes around the County of Lambton-owned, 80-acre Western University Research Park lands.

Fernco – the Canadian distribution arm of Michigan-based parent company Cooper Company Inc. – has been in Sarnia-Lambton 32 years and has outgrown its current Phillip Street location, said Tracy Neifer, general manager.

Pending council approval, hopes are this move – the company’s fourth – will be its last, she said, as the 4.5-acre ask gives enough space for expansion.

“Based on my experience we seem to run out of room every 10 years,” said Neifer, who’s been with the pipe-repair couplings distributor since its inception.

It currently employs seven. That would rise to 10 at the proposed new 30,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution centre near Wellington and Modeland roads, she said. The number of employees would grow to 20 over time.

A potential expansion – likely a decade out, Neifer said – could employ another 15 when and if it happens, a city staff report says.

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Image Credit. Google Maps.

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