In this episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Dan Mathieson, Former Mayor of Stratford.

In this episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Dan Mathieson, Former Mayor of Stratford.

The city of Stratford, Ontario was known in Canada as that “quaint little town 90 minutes outside of Toronto.” Its economy was based on agriculture, tourism and light manufacturing with repeated cycles of growth and decline, leading nowhere.

Then, under a new mayor, Stratford made strategic investments in digital infrastructure and services. Creative deal-making led the city to attract first one, then another data center. Neither was a major employer by itself – but the density of digital assets laid the foundation for Stratford to persuade two banks to move their IT staff from high-priced real estate in Toronto to this attractive community with good schools, strong social bonds and rich cultural offerings.

Learn more

Learn from Statford and 21 other communities in Accelerate Your Economic Development, a discount bundle of courses in the Community Accelerator online training program. Stratford is profiled in the course on Innovation: Building an Ecosystem for Growth. Produced in partnership with Economic Development Australia and the Economic Developers Association of Canada. 

How did Stratford do it? ICF tells the story in an online profile - one of hundreds on our site that take you inside technology-centric development of communities that builds inclusive prosperity, strengthens societies and enriches local culture.

Communities accelerate by starting an Intelligent Community Journey. Each is different, but all follow similar paths. Start yours.
 
 

I wrote my last post, “Why Are We Falling Apart?” in response to a heartfelt editorial by David Brooks of The New York Times. Confronting today’s epidemic of inhumane behavior in America – reckless driving, unrest in schools, fights on airliners, hate crimes and murders – he asked, “What the hell is going on?” His plaintive and honest answer was “I don’t know.”

In my post, I explained why I thought we have been falling apart – not just recently but gradually for the past 40 years, and not just in the United States but in fellow industrialized nations around the world.

But understanding reasons is only gets us so far. What matters is what we can do about it.

What do Intelligent Communities know that others do not? Intelligent Communities like Espoo (Finland), Dublin (Ohio, USA), Eindhoven (The Netherlands), Tallinn (Estonia) and the current Intelligent Community of the Year, Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) are no longer just “smart cities.” They have gone at least one level higher. In our Moment of Truth podcast series, we ask them when they realized that they had gone from “smart city” to Intelligent Community, and what exactly it means to them. We also ask how they managed to get there.

In this series with mayors, police chiefs and other leading thinkers on the topic of policing and collaborative leadership, we ask how Intelligent Communities are responding to the issue and what advantages and best practices they might offer others.

There’s a new addition to the business landscape in Stratford.

Trillium Hatchery Inc. held a ribbon cutting-cutting ceremony at their 70-thousand square foot facility in the city’s Wright Business Park on Tuesday.

The city says the facility is a $25 million dollar investment which will generate economic opportunities in Stratford and across Ontario.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony officially marks the opening of the new Samsonite Canada expanded Canadian Head Office in Stratford

The new 140,000-sq.ft. state-of-the-art facility features a warehouse, offices, showroom and Company Outlet store.
The new facility is on a 10.4-acre site behind Festival Marketplace Mall on C.H. Meier Boulevard.

Samsonite first opened in Stratford in 1956 and recently celebrated 60 years in Canada. The company produces luggage, business cases, casual bags, and accessories.

A recent tour of Canada’s biggest battery allowed participants to get up close to an 8.8MW/40MWh lithium-ion array housed in an otherwise unremarkable looking shed in the Wright Industrial Park in Stratford, Ontario.

“This is a historical moment,” says Stefan Goertz, Director of Development of Energy Services for Saturn Power, EPC contractor (in a joint venture with Ellis Don) and co-developer (with Hecate Energy). “But in the future, we’re going to see a lot more of this.”

Though no announcement has been made yet in regard to future government funding for the program, facilitators are calling the Connect2Skills industry training program a success as 90 per cent of those who graduated from the program in its pilot year are now gainfully employed with local manufacturers.

Over the course of three six-week modules held in both Stratford and Listowel – the last of which finished up on Wednesday -- 29 area residents successfully completed the program, which included four weeks of in-class job training and two weeks of paid placement with one of the five local manufacturers that partnered with the Four County Labour Market Planning Board for this endeavour.