Jason Meyer wants to see more economic development near Union Gas.
The 43 year-old contractor who has served nine years on Dawn-Euphemia Council is seeking re-election Oct. 22.
He wants to see more industry set up shop near the gas plant.
Why did you decide to seek another term?
“There is lots to be done yet. I want to focus on economic development and residential development…we’re not there yet.”
What needs to be done on the economic development side?
The County of Lambton did give us quite a large tract of land around Union Gas that could be turned into industrial land use. That would be great if we could start promoting and build around Union Gas.
What sort of businesses do you see there?
“There are so many things you can do around Union Gas, Aecon already has a yard there; another greenhouse project because they use so much energy and natural gas. Anything that uses natural gas – Nova Chemical could get into liquefying natural gas…there is so much flow coming in from the (United) States because of this shale gas, you might see businesses popping up to liquefy natural gas because there is so much flow and Union Gas’ demand hasn’t taken up the flow yet even though they did build that pipeline to the GTA.
Does residential growth flow from industrial growth or is there another opportunity here?
Residential growth is pretty difficult here; everything is broken up into 150 acre lots; that’s a pretty expensive building lot. I’m hoping that we can solve the Florence sewer issue and then Florence won’t remain stagnant any longer. Once there is municipal sewers in Florence we will be able to move forward with more residential development there. If we added another 60 homes, we would be back close to where we were in the mid-eighties when all the excess homes were being bulldozed instead of severed and serviced.
Do you think it is possible to get 60 homes back in the area?
I believe the system they’re looking at – if it goes through at the Ministry of the Environment – supports the 73 that are there and another 50 – I believe those are the numbers. There is definitely room for expansion.
What sort of personal qualities you have which makes you a good councillor?
“I don’t even think I am a good councillor, I’m still working on it.
“I get frustrated easy with the whole process – it is so slow – I’m working on my patience. It has been nine years and nothing has really changed in leaps and bounds.
How does it change for the better?
We need a few people on council there  who are go-getters – really progressive go getters.”