Civil Municipal Magazine - Dec 2023

52 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 12 EnerFORGE is part of the Oshawa Power Group of Companies, and we work closely with our peers and local and regional governments to develop sustainable energy solutions, including district energy, CHP, solar, and wind. At EnerFORGE, we are planning for the future, just like you. We share the same concerns about climate change and protecting the land, water, our communities and environment. That’s why, as your strategic energy partner, we can plan for small and large-scale energy solutions for commercial and industrial energy customers and projects. EnerFORGE approaches projects with various flexible, affordable, and innovative services. Available services span the entire project spectrum: design, build, finance, own, operate and maintain. Employing a technology-agnostic and tailored approach has been highly successful in driving energy performance for our public and private sector customers. Using these tools, we build systems that cater to our customer’s needs. At EnerFORGE, we’re not selling products. We’re forging a sustainable energy future. Contact us for more information on how we can support your upcoming project at: connect@EnerFORGE.com Your energy partner for sustainable commercial development OSHAWA , ONTARIO From Automotive to Today For decades, the city of Oshawa was known as the automotive capital of Canada, as Mayor Dan Carter recounts, “If you go back about 100 years ago, we were very much known as an industrial community, with a lot of different industries that were part of the automobile industry and other associated businesses.” The city can trace its automotive roots back as far as Robert McLaughlin, the founder of McLaughlin Carriage Company which would later become General Motors of Canada; maintaining a presence in Oshawa today. “Over the 100 years, we’ve seen our community change dramatically,” acknowledges Carter. He shares that until the 1980’s, close to 35,000 workers were employed on the city’s auto assembly lines, a number which has decreased to only 3000, with an additional 12,000 workers employed in associated industries. “We’ve gone through a real transformation over that 100 years, and we continue to be able to see the diversity of our community, not only in population, but also in our economy. We’ve got a really wonderful history, but we’ve got such a promising future as we look forward,” he portrays. A key factor in Oshawa’s transformation has been its commitment to post-secondary education. The city is home to several post secondary education providers, including Durham College, a rapidly growing institution which has been part of the community since 1967.