Major infrastructure projects, attracting newcomers and making Sarnia the "Hydrogen Hub" of Canada are a few things the city's mayor is focusing on in 2023.
Mike Bradley discussed the state of the city and his outlook for the new year during Tuesday morning's Golden K Kiwanis meeting.
Bradley said the city's Downtown Waterfront Master Plan, estimated to cost $50-million, will face its first test during budget deliberations this month.
"Over the election period I heard from people, 'can we really afford to do it?' We can't afford not to do it. It will be a major tourism draw, and most of the money will come from the city, the feds, the province and the private sector."
Bradley said the most immediate project which he believes in strongly is the renewal of the Ferry Dock Hill property.
"It's been sitting there for two or three years looking like a swimming pool. It's dangerous and it sends the wrong message on a key gateway to the waterfront. So that's an infrastructure project -- it's not a tourism project -- that's an infrastructure project to get that up and running."
Bradley also said doing more to improve the sewer system is a top priority.
When it comes to growing the population, Bradley acknowledged the continued work of Sarnia-Lambton Local Immigration Partnership. In November, the group unveiled the Welcome to Lambton mobile app.
Bradley also said Sarnia can be a centre of good positive environmental change, with help from the Sarnia-Lambton Research Park and Lambton College. He said he'll be inviting Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, to the area this year to show what the Sarnia area is doing in the energy sector.
"Because when you look at just transition, it's all about Alberta and the west. I just did a social media post saying 'listen, what about the people at the other end of the pipelines? Because if you're transitioning there, we need to be a part of that, because we need to get the benefits of the transition too,' and that's going to take a real thoughtful conversation."
Bradley said the Line 5 saga isn't over yet. He said he was fortunate to get the chance to testify in front of a House of Commons committee on the issue.
"We managed to get all of the parties, including the Bloc Québécois -- but not the Green Party, we didn't expect them -- to come on board to support the continued operation of Line 5. When you find out there's 6,000 products that are manufactured out of that line, that's a pretty powerful story, and we need to continue to try to tell that story."
Bradley also discussed the affordable growth plan for the city.
He said they spent two or three agonizing years developing a new official plan, only to have it rejected by the county late last year.
"And that is very frustrating because it is our plan, and if Premier Ford really believes in local communities planning then let us plan our own community. And I think it will be interesting because we are going to have to spend a lot of money to defend our plan against the county."
Bradley said the decision should be made by county council, not the planning director. That's why he's put forward a motion to have that decision fall to elected council.
Bradley was elected to his 11th term as mayor of Sarnia in October.
