Bioindustrial Innovation Canada opens new office in Brockville, ON

Sarnia-Lambton, Ont.-based Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) today celebrated the official opening of its new regional office in Brockville, Ont.

With a recent contribution from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), BIC has developed the Ontario Bioindustrial Innovation Network (OBIN). OBIN will continue to support the growth of the Hybrid Chemistry Cluster in Sarnia-Lambton and to enable to launch a new Sustainable Chemistry Cluster in the Eastern Ontario St. Lawrence Corridor region centred around Brockville and Maitland. BIC will offer its services for the Ontario Bioindustrial Innovation Network from this new location.

Attending the opening ceremony were senior representatives from BIC, Kate Young, parliamentary secretary to the minister of economic development and official languages (FedDev Ontario), local representatives from the St. Lawrence Corridor Economic Development Commission, as well as local representatives from industry, academia and municipal government from the surrounding townships.

“The investment in BIC is allowing it to expand its reach to Eastern Ontario, which will help bring businesses to this area, and create a regional sustainable chemistry cluster here with the potential to grow, create jobs, and diversify local economies, while helping to bring new, green technologies to the world,” Young said. “Not only is this great news for Eastern Ontario, but this project will have positive impacts on the sustainable chemistry and clean tech sectors across the province – giving companies access to two diverse cluster sites with a wider range of expertise and resources.”

A.J. (Sandy) Marshall, executive director of BIC, said, “We are incredibly happy to open this new BIC office in Brockville. We are excited to see the future development of a second hybrid chemistry cluster that will create jobs, support innovative companies in sustainable chemistry and clean technologies to overcome setbacks to commercialization.”

On Feb. 13, FedDev Ontario minister Mélanie Joly visited BIC’s Sarnia location and announced $15 million to create a new sustainable chemistry hub to help 150  innovative clean tech companies scale up and grow and create and maintain 700 jobs in southern Ontario.