London is a city of opportunity, said Mayor Joe Fontana at his annual State of the City address Wednesday morning.
What’s more, The University of Western Ontario has a lot to offer to a city that is booming with public and private investments in areas of education, jobs, health care and infrastructure, he explained.
“(This) is a city of opportunity for the best education possible,” Fontana said.
“With (recent investments and interest), what does it show? We are competitive, we have the talent, and we can produce anything that the world needs.”
The mayor noted, to much applause, there is great potential in Western’s new partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology.
“Fraunhofer, the world leader in research and composite material will be located in London at the advanced manufacturing park on Veteran’s Memorial Parkway,” he said. He thanked Western president Amit Chakma and university trustees for helping attract Fraunhofer and brining in opportunity for research, development and employment.
Fraunhofer and Western will work together on developing and processing composite materials for lightweight vehicles in the new, state-of-the-art research centre.
Fontana also noted the future plans for the city’s core included big advancements for Western, with the development of a downtown campus.
“We will create, with The University of Western Ontario, the Western Centre (Education Square). Hundreds of graduate students and international students will come to the best university in the country and study in the best place in our city, in the downtown,” he said.
With Fanshawe College starting the trend and buying property downtown, and Western soon to follow in its footsteps, the presence of post-secondary education in the city’s core the city will “start to rock,” said the mayor.
“We are getting ready to take on the world. And to do that, we need a vibrant downtown.”
Meanwhile, the city itself needs to – and will, with new investments and partnerships – foster an environment for creation and innovation. He cited Dr. Chil-Yong Kang and his team at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, who received the green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start human clinical trials of a first-ever, preventative, killed-whole virus HIV vaccine.
“Are we going to tell Dr. Kang and Dr. Kim (of Sumagen Canada, partnering with Dr. Kang’s team) that they need to go to the United States or anywhere else to manufacture this lifesaving vaccine? We’re going to work with our partners to make sure this happens right where the (vaccine) was born.”
With developments in research, investments and their resultant upcoming job opportunities, momentum is building for London and it is important for the city to be seen as a place of equal opportunity for all, Fontana said.
“London now stands on a global stage and we must show the world our best each and every day.”