Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens got emotional as he spoke about the prosperity on the city's horizon in his latest mayor's address.
Dilkens indicated a lot of that prosperity will come from the development of the Sandwich South lands for future industrial investments and residential growth.
He says creating a pathway for those developments will be a focus this term as mayor so that when opportunities arise the city will be ready to take advantage of them.
"The stars that are aligning for Windsor today, you don't see very often, this is a once in a generational type opportunity that we have in front of us and we can't miss it. We have to be able to put all of the pieces together and make sure that we are setting the stage for our city's future success," said Dilkens.
Developing the lands south of the airport, where the new acute care hospital is being built, is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Very little of that is included in the 10-year capital budget that was approved by Windsor City Council two weeks ago.
Dilkens said the plan is under development and council will have big decisions to make once the plan is in front of them.
"When we give them the roadmap, I would assume that they are going to re-prioritize at least part of the capital budget but the order of magnitude of these types of investments would mean you would have to be comfortable taking on strategic debt in order to fund growth," said Dilkens.
The Sandwich South development plans are expected to be completed later this year.
With construction on the hospital set to start by 2026 and construction of the NextStar Energy plant already underway, Dilkens admits there is a lot of work to do.
"We are probably a little behind the eight-ball at this point but that shouldn't deter us. We should make sure that we redouble our efforts, get this work done because our city's economic future depends on it," said Dilkens.
