It seemed only a matter of hours after the announcement Volkswagen was to locate its EV battery plant in St. Thomas that crews were on site felling thousands of trees in five wood lots across the 1,500-acre property.
The company involved is CLC Tree Service out of London.
A check of their website and it seems they are more of an operation focussed on tree trimming and removal of diseased or damaged trees in urban areas and not large commercial land clearing.
With heavily wooded areas across the county, is there not a local firm that could have been hired for a project of this size?
What was the tendering process involved and how many firms bid on the job?
A call to Mayor Joe Preston garnered a response of I don’t know, I wasn’t involved.
Why don’t you ask Sean Dyke over at St. Thomas Economic Development Corp?
Fair enough.
Monthly Archives: March 2023
The competition was ‘intense’ however St. Thomas wins the bidding war for Volkswagen EV battery plant
After about a year’s worth of talks between Volkswagen, and the federal and provincial governments, the deal was made public this past Monday.
The automaker announced it was locating an electric-vehicle battery plant in St. Thomas.
It’s Volkswagen’s first overseas gigafactory.
It’s a logical choice given the city’s location, its proximity to essential minerals mined in Northern Ontario and required for production and the provincial deal just consummated that brings hundreds of acres of Central Elgin land into the confines of St. Thomas.
The plant will be operated by Volkswagen’s battery division, PowerCo.
Few details were made available on the size of the plant, the number of workers to be employed and how much will the deal ultimately cost taxpayers in this country.
More on that in a moment.
Following the announcement around noon on Monday, Mayor Joe Preston advised this is only the beginning.
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St. Thomas/Central Elgin boundary adjustment: ‘Trust is a big part of working together. And in the last six months or so it has been eroded to some degree.’
The Mayor’s Luncheon on Wednesday at St. Anne’s Centre could have been more appropriately billed as A Mayor’s Grilling.
Featuring Southwold Mayor Grant Jones, Central Elgin Mayor Andrew Sloan and St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston, all attention was focused on the latter in what proved to be one of the most lively such functions in recent memory.
All because of recently adopted Bill 63, the St. Thomas-Central Elgin Boundary Adjustment Act, 2023.
The bill allows for the annexation of a portion of Central Elgin to the City of St. Thomas so that the latter can assemble a 1,500-acre parcel of land to attract a mega-industrial project to the city.
It has resulted in a bad taste in the mouths of the city’s neighbours and many unanswered questions.
And so when the floor was opened to questions from the audience on Wednesday, you had to know what direction the conversation would take.
First to the microphone was former Central Elgin Mayor Sally Martyn who needed no warm-up.
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St. Thomas Police Service strategic plan 2023-2026: ‘The police alone cannot solve the problem of crime and social disorder.”
Clarification: In an effort to establish the identity of the consulting company employed by the St. Thomas Police Service, Chief Marc Roskamp and I spoke this morning. The firm is Consilium Public Sector Services based out of Toronto, which also uses the acronym CP2S. And so any reference to the U.S.-based CP2S (which is not affiliated in any way with the Toronto firm) has been removed.
The St. Thomas Police Service this week released its road map for this year through 2026.
The strategic plan recommends “intentional steps our members will take to ensure the police service is performing in accordance with our community’s values and expectations,” according to police board chairman Dan Reith.
He continues that the priorities of the plan “have been compiled carefully from the concerns and insights offered by St. Thomas citizens, business owners, elected officials, members within the police service and other interested parties.”
Chief Marc Roskamp adds “This plan has been developed with a major emphasis on ensuring all citizens and business owners of St. Thomas, have had an opportunity to share their thoughts about the performance of our police service, and their feelings about crime and safety in our community.
“Through this process, we have identified five major areas to focus our strategic priorities over the next four years. They are; Organizational Service Review, Communications, Technology, Human Resources, and Community Partnerships.”
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