Clarington, Ontario

CLAR INGTON, ONTAR IO a willing participant. Aging infrastructure is another challenge. Foster explains, “Because we have a number of small hamlets, I have a lot of community centers, some of which are historic buildings that are very difficult and expensive to maintain. The need for a new recreation center in Bowmanville has been a couple years in the making. But because we’ve got three major urban centers, if I build one of anything – a pool, an ice surface, whatever – I have to build three.” Healthcare is a crucial component to the community and Clarington is looking at a major expansion to the Bowmanville Memorial Hospital. Council just committed $5 million to that and is expecting an announcement from the province for more funding. In addition, the nuclear file is getting interesting. “Over half of the medical isotopes used around the globe come from Canada, and we’ll be looking at medical isotopes coming out of Darlington,” says Foster, “along with new technology in the nuclear sector – the small modular reactor (SMR). You can potentially build a reactor in a factory and double the input, and get it dropped at a different location. In the past, the focus has been on giant reactors. With an SMR, instead of stringing thousands of miles of lines to a remote northern location, you put the generation capacity right there. We already have a site at Darlington that was approved and has been maintained for additional base load in the future, and that could be a very interesting demonstration site.” Five years down the road, the Mayor hopes the commitment for the GO Train comes to fruition with two additional stops in Clarington – one in Courtice and one in Bowmanville (the west central hub). “We’ll see high density mixed-use development around those stations,” he notes. “At the Courtice site: higher-price condos, with a southwest view to the lake and northeast view to the Oak Ridges Moraine. A ten-minute walk to the GO Train, immediate access to the 418, which takes you right to the 401 or the 407, maybe a 20-minute walk to the waterfront, and the pictured right Founder, Tyler Highfill pictured Mayor, Adrian Foster