Both the federal and provincial governments have released budgets this week and neither one earmarked money for London's job creation strategy.
For two years, city hall has been setting aside its share of a $120-million plan to create new industrial land along Highway 401, but matching dollars from the province and feds remain elusive.
London needs new industrial land as several economic development reports have all pointed out that the city has a critically low supply of shovel-ready land.
Mayor Matt Brown chatted with London West MP Ed Holder Friday, but Brown says he didn’t press Holder about funding for the city’s industrial land strategy.
“We've made our case through the provincial and federal governments that we'd like to partner in industrial lands that are in the right place and the right size,” Brown says.
The strategy would install utility servicing to 300 hectares of new land near the 401-402 corridor – splitting $120 million in three ways with the upper levels of government.
The city projects big returns in the long term, including 4,600 full time industrial jobs.
While it’s been a priority since 2013, there was no mention of it in this week’s budgets.
“It has to be a combination of many things so the city will do what it does. The province has to make its contributions, and the federal government will make its contribution where it sees fit,” Holder says.
“We are still working to see if we can make that happen, but there is not a specific government to build that kind of infrastructure,” says London MPP Deb Matthews. “It’s not something that the province typically does, but I really see the value for London to have that land serviced. So it’s something I'm continuing to work on.”
The mayor says city officials have continued to push.
“We have absolutely pressed the issue. We were very clear with the request, but partnerships require commitments from all parties. So if we can't work on that project, I'm sure we can find something else to work on,” Brown says.
Neither Matthews nor Holder are saying an absolute no to funding just yet. They say the city needs to find creative ways to quality within existing funds.
“We've got the Canada Building Fund, which the City of London can certainly apply to for that kind of support. So we look forward to seeing that application to see where that takes it,” Holder says.
Holder also made a funding announcement Friday that promises high-tech manufacturing jobs for the city.
Starlim North America has received up to $4 million in federal funding to expand its plant in London.
Starlim will add 20 new jobs by 2018 and invest in state-of-the-art equipment.
Servicing customers around the globe, Starlim hopes to begin tapping into the Canadian market as well.
