Business View Magazine | June 2019

299 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JUNE 2019 of Information Technology, remarks that the combination of Lambton College being the Number One applied research college in the country, together with the programs that his office has promulgated in the realm of digital intelligence, has garnered recognition from the Intelligent Community Forum, a non-profit policy research organization, focusing on job creation and economic development in the broadband economy. “We were recognized as one of the top seven Intelligent Communities across the world,” Dillon states. “The framework has six pillars: one of them is your knowledge workforce; another is your internet connectivity; innovation is another; digital equality – making sure that everyone has access to technology in a growing digital society is another; sustainability is another one – is what you’re doing going to carry on?; and advocacy for it – are you making sure that you have citizen outreach? So, being in the top seven in the world for Intelligent Communities, and having the Number One applied research college in Canada, puts us in a pretty good place. And one of the reasons we ranked well in the internet activity area is because our partner, Bluewater Regional Networks, made a very large investment in underground fiber, shortly after Bell Canada came and did fiber to every home built, which brings our internet activity to a much more robust and leading edge level.” Of course, regardless of the intellectual prowess of the workers in Sarnia’s businesses and factories, if product can’t get to where it needs to be, it is all for naught. Mike Berkvens, Director of Engineering, talks about an upcoming project, called the Sarnia- Lambton Oversized Load Corridor Project, that will give the city’s fabrication companies a greater ability to transport large structures to and from the city’s port. “The project is to rehabilitate and improve a designated road that transverses the city as well as upgrade existing harbor facilities,” Berkvens begins. “The existing infrastructure, including overhead utility lines along local roads, makes movements of large loads difficult and costly. So, the Corridor will accommodate the shipment and export of SARNI A , ONTAR IO pictured L to R: Rob Harwood, Director of Parks and Recreation; Tammie Ryall, Acting Director of Community Development Services and Standards; Mike Berkvens, Director or Engineering; and Mark Dillon, Corporate Manager of Information Technology