The Mayor of Chatham-Kent told the local Chamber of Commerce during his annual address on Wednesday morning that his top four priorities are getting the former Navistar site redeveloped, getting the Downtown Chatham Centre back on its feet, reinvigorating the downtown core, and growing the area's population.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said Chatham-Kent is a "hot commodity right now," as he cited a big projected increase in building permits and new restaurants and food trucks that want to open. Canniff said 1,100 building permits were issued last year, worth a record $200 million. So far this year, $136 million worth of permits have been issued. The mayor also said Go Karts have been approved for Tibury and they should be coming soon and a bowling alley expansion is underway in Blenheim. He also noted a resort is being developed on the waterfront and a plant from Kentucky is moving to Chatham-Kent and creating over 100 jobs as part of the region's momentum.
"We are growing by leaps and bounds and I expect that to continue," said Canniff.
Canniff said the economic development department has been focusing on growing existing businesses for the past 3 or 4 years because that's where 90 per cent of the growth will come from. Canniff noted local small businesses received $800,000 in grants from economic development over the last year to help them with an online presence and other vital assistance.
The mayor added the population in Chatham-Kent has grown by 4.5 per cent in the past four years, following an eight year decrease and the municipality is trying to get students to stay in Chatham-Kent. Canniff hopes to change their minds about there being no jobs in the area. He said the 18 to 40 segment of the population has jumped by eight per cent.
Mayor Canniff also said that the region's biggest challenge is mental health and the municipality must deal with homelessness and drug addiction like the rest of the country. The mayor said those issues are not easy to solve and need help from upper levels of government to fix.
"The biggest challenge is to get people back to where they were," said Canniff.
He said the local homeless population increased from 100 people to 300.
Mayor Canniff also gushed about how proud he is of Chatham-Kent for coming together during the pandemic. He said people donated personal protective equipment, people went to work wearing masks, and municipal services such as transit kept running to help people get to the grocery store.
The mayor also expects the new owners of the Dowtown Chatham Centre to be announced in a couple of weeks.
"The world is our oyster right now," Mayor Canniff said.
