The Welland Canal’s industrial legacy helped give Niagara the tools to draw in major investments like Port Colborne’s new battery plant.
Asahi Kasei’s lithium-ion separator facility in the city will benefit from assets in place because of Niagara’s history as a marine economy. The infrastructure and industrial culture of Niagara are key assets that made the region attractive.
“They weren’t walking into a community that had never seen industrial before,” says Bram Cotton, Port Colborne’s Economic Development Officer. “It’s our history. It’s Niagara’s lifeblood. It’s why Niagara was really created.
“It’s not just going to benefit Port Colborne. It’s going to benefit all of the region.”
The $1.6-billion investment is to be built on a greenfield property along the Welland Canal. The property takes advantage of assets built for the Canal that make it a multimodal transportation hub. There is potential to extend and improve rail spurs in the area, while road connections tie into Highway 140 and from there into the broader network of major highways connecting Niagara to the world.
In the long term, there is potential to improve the stretch of the Welland Canal adjacent to the broader area of Port Colborne. The roughly two hundred acres of land around Asahi Kasei’s incoming plant will now be opened up with services like water, sewer and access roads, creating opportunities for more industry to invest.
Those industrial connections create opportunities for businesses. The Welland Canal Corridor puts Niagara at the centre of a market of 130 million people within a day’s drive across Canada and the United States, spanning regions with a total GDP of $5.6 trillion.
For Niagara and Port Colborne, it’s an opportunity to launch into a leadership role in Canada’s growing electric vehicle supply chain, one bolstered by the Canal Corridor’s unique assets. The upshot: More good-paying jobs, and more opportunities for young people in Niagara to launch their careers close to home.
“We’ve always wanted Port Colborne to be the place where you live, work and play,” Cotton said.
“We have a very healthy industrial base. We have historic industry, and we have our current industry. This is a way to add and augment that, while adding a significant amount of jobs for generations to come.”
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