Business View Civil & Municipal | July 2022

62 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 cargo a year. The canal and its ports were a major factor in the growth of the city of Toronto, Ontario, allowing goods from Great Lakes ports like Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago, as well as other heavily industrialised areas of the U.S. and Ontario, to be shipped to the port of Montreal or Quebec City, where they are usually reloaded onto ocean-going vessels to ship internationally. The Welland Canal is larger than other canals in the region and offers a shorter, more direct connection to Lake Erie. Port Colborne Mayor William Steele recounts, “The area has a long history as a pivotal place for Indigenous people, as well as United Empire Loyalists, dating back to the late 1700s, because of the lakeshore. So, Lake Erie is the reason for Port Colborne. Shipping is the reason for Port Colborne. Once the Welland Canal came in 1833, it really opened the town to eventually become a city in the 1960s. The lake is really what draws people to Port Colborne. As we say, it gives a small town feel in a big city way.” Port Colborne isn’t just a destination for goods, it’s also a tourist destination boasting some of the most unique beaches in Ontario, including Sherkston Shores, Nickel Beach (one of the very last that allows vehicles to drive on the sand) and many more, which are said to be some of the best places to learn to surf and wakeboard. It’s also a popular destination for cottagers, with most of the beachfront offering private access. Port Colborne has also become a destination for cyclists because all of the Niagara Trails meet in the city at the Niagara Circle Route and it’s the only municipality on the circle. The population of Port Colborne currently sits at 20,033, an increase of just over 2,000 since 2018. The majority of those new residents are young families. Steele says he’s not surprised at the growth and that city council planned for it. After the Vale Health and Wellness Centre was complete, they knew the two hockey rinks, two