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March 30, 2026

Heather Wright/The Independent

Tourism Sarnia Lambton is looking for a new executive director.

Board Chair Al Duffy says Mark Perrin was recently released from his position after seven years leading the organization.

Duffy announced the move in a letter to tourism “partners” where he thanked Perrin for his work at TSL. “The board remains committed to strengthening Tourism Sarnia-Lambton as a leading destination marketting organization that is responsive to the needs and interests of all our stakeholders.”

In the last few years, municipal leaders voiced concerns TSL wasn’t responsive to local tourism events. Warwick Township Mayor Todd Case led the charge in 2025 to have Perrin visit municipal governments to talk about what is being done to promote their events and what more could be done to strengthen tourism.

Mark Perrin, former executive director of Tourism Sarnia Lambton at the March 16, 2026 meeting of St. Clair Township.

When the visits didn’t occur that year, Case brought it up again at budget time in 2026.

Perrin made two such visits to Warwick first on Feb. 23 and then St. Clair Township March 16. He was slated to speak to Petrolia Council March 23, but the delegation was postponed.

Duffy would say little about the board’s decision to let Perrin go, saying only “We’re just trying to make sure that we’re working well with the partners that we have at the county level, and …that we following through with all of the promises and things that we say that we’re here to do.”

TSL’s Marketing Director Adam Veen has been named the Interim Director. Duffy hopes to have a new TSL head in the next three to four months.

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