April 18, 2023 at 4:20 pm
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens was emotional in his recent mayoral address when he spoke of the prosperity on the city’s skyline.
Much of the prosperity will come from the development of Sandwich South land for future industrial investment and residential growth, Mr Dilkens said.
Forging a path for these developments will be a focus of this mayoral term so the city will be ready to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, he said.
“With the stars lining up for Windsor today that you don’t see very often, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in front of us that we can’t pass up. We must be able to bring all the pieces together to ensure we are laying the groundwork for our city’s future success,” Dilkens explain.
To develop the land south of the airport, a new emergency hospital is under construction and is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Few of these were included in the 10-year capital budget approved by Windsor City Council two weeks ago.
Dilkens said the plan was being developed and the council would make a major decision once it was before them.
“When we gave them the roadmap, I assumed they were going to reprioritize at least some of the capital budget, but the magnitude of these types of investments means you have to be willing to take on strategic debt in order to fund growth,” Dilkens said.
The Sandwich South development program is expected to be completed later this year.
With construction of the hospital set to begin in 2026 and construction of the NextStar Energy plant already underway, Dilkens acknowledged that there is still much work to be done.
“We might be a bit behind eight-ball at this point, but that shouldn’t stop us. We should make sure we step up and get this done, because our city’s economic future depends on it,” Dilkens said.