Business View Magazine | December 2019

357 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019 CHATHAM-KENT , ONTAR IO automotive sectors and the municipality is keen to promote continuing diversification. Business View Magazine recently hosted an enlightening roundtable discussion with Chatham-Kent Mayor, Darrin Canniff; Director of Economic Development, Stuart McFadden; Manager of Community Attraction & Promotion, Audrey Ansell; Director of Planning Services, Bruce McAllister; and Director of Engineering &Transportation, Chris Thibert. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. BVM: Can you give us an economic overview of Chatham-Kent? Canniff: “People want to come here for many different reasons. Our cost of living is a fantastic competitive advantage. Geographically, we have access to millions of people. We’re an hour from Detroit, two-and-a-half hours from Toronto. We’re a community of communities – Chatham, the largest, has that big city vibe, while the other towns throughout our municipality give the small-town feel. People here are friendly and we’re all really excited about the future. We’re growing, and building houses at a record pace.” McFadden: “Chatham-Kent is 2,500 square kilometers in size and the vast majority is prime farmland. So agriculture is huge for us. Manufacturing continues to be strong; it’s just different with today’s technology and innovation. Cannabis is a part of our agricultural community – even three years ago it didn’t exist. And it continues to grow exponentially. The plans for the future seem very bright in that industry and Chatham-Kent looks to support that growth. We have a very large IT sector, as well. We probably have in excess of 1,500 people working in call centers. Our hospitals are a big employer, and Enbridge has a large presence here, which is another large driver in our community. “Something else that doesn’t get enough air time is the dynamic, small business, entrepreneurial spirit here. You don’t have to have 200 employees to be special and Each year, Autoliv’s products save over 30,000 lives autoliv.com