22 Business View Magazine - April 2016
were reeling, funds were being made available from
the Province of Ontario and Canada’s federal govern-
ment of Canada. “During the Great Recession,” says
Sendzik, “there was an infrastructure project approved
by the government which said to the municipalities,
‘Show us what your major projects are to re-position
your cities and we’ll come in as willing partners.’”
Based on this initiative, both the Brock University
school move and the FirstOntario Performing Arts
Centre were underwritten by joint federal, provincial,
and municipal funds. And while the new spectator fa-
cility is a project wholly mortgaged by the city, alone,
yet another multi-million dollar construction project -
a brand new, mixed-use development, consisting of a
LEED-standard parking garage and retail space - was
recently constructed downtown with a combination of
federal and city funds.
“So we’ve done that,” says Sendzik, referring to the
completion of the major downtown building projects.
“But there’s still a lot of work to go.” And key to St.
Catherines continual rejuvenation, according to its
mayor, is attracting the types of businesses that will
employ the city’s next generation of workers, because
bringing a younger demographic into the city is essen-
