Business View Magazine | December 2020

299 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 LASALLE , ONTAR IO acres or so. The corridor will transmit water from low-lying areas to the pond, where it will be treated back to a natural base and then released back into the river. We are dealing with a number of landowners as we go through this project and we anticipate we will be able to effectively house about 20,000 to 25,000 people once this infrastructure is complete. This project will open up about 535 hectares of development lands.” The construction timeline will run about two years for the design phase with another three to five years on the construction phase. “It’s a bit of an all-or-nothing schedule and we need to have the entire project operational, so that when folks are building homes, and eventually moving in, they can be assured to the best degree possible that they are not going to flood during heavy rain,” adds Milicia. Investing in the natural surroundings has taken many forms over the years, including the construction of about 30 kilometres of trail systems that connect neighbourhoods through natural areas. “A decade ago or more we started acquiring environmentally sensitive lands, mainly woodlot or prairie grass areas, and we continue on with that project,” shares Mayor Bondy. “We’ve spent in excess of $10 million and that’s probably been our single largest investment and program that we have with sustainability. We have roughly 600 acres of provincially significant wetlands and over 400 acres of ecologically significant Carolinian Forest, so that’s 1,000 acres that we’ve purchased. We’re really just acquiring them to hold them in their current state to ensure we are doing our part to pay back to the environment.” LaSalle is primarily a bedroom community bordered by the Town of Amherstburg to the south, the Town of Tecumseh to the east, and the City of Windsor to the north. LaSalle’s largest employer, CenterLine, has a workforce upwards of 750 people, while most local residents work in major employment areas in Southern Ontario, Southeastern Michigan, and Northern Ohio due to easy access to Highway 401, Highway 3, and other major roads.