First Monday – December 2015 – George Mallay
The creative industries has emerged as a major and growing source of GDP for Ontario. The sector contributes in the order of $12.2 billion in GDP for Ontario’s economy annually. Ontario’s creative industries include: design, Internet (wired and mobile) fashion, film and television production, music, book publishing, advertising and magazine publishing, interactive digital media, and commercial theatre. In neighbouring Michigan the creative sector is projected to grow by 11% per year to 2018 and is now Detroit’s third largest sector.
As part of its 2015-2018 Strategic Plan, SLEP identified the creative industries as a new sector of focus. Over the past 10 months SLEP has worked to gain a better understanding of the sector within Lambton County and to identify potential opportunities for growth.
Ted Zatylny has led our effort which has included; establishing a community steering committee, completing a number of studies, holding community input sessions, producing an asset map which will be digitally available and developing new information publications to assist and promote the sector. A lot of content has been put on the www.entrepreneurlink.ca site.
Work undertaken by Hill Strategies Research estimated that the creative industries in Lambton County probably represents 4%-6% of the overall economy. Cobalt Connects which developed a creative sector survey and workshop for SLEP identified 463 creative economy firms in Lambton. Design sector accounted for over 26% of the total, exhibition and distribution represented 23%, production 15%, retail 16%, education 17%, service 3%, and support 4%.
SLEP is seeing growth in the creative sector through local start-ups and from entrepreneurs moving here from larger centers and opening businesses. Local initiatives such as the The Cube, Start-up Sarnia and the Bluewater Technology Access Center all driven by Lambton College, the Starter Company Program through SLEP’s Business Enterprise Center, and other programs through the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park and Sarnia-Lambton Business Development Corporation are providing services and building infrastructure, and directing access to capital. Lambton County also plays an important role through its Lambton Creative County Fund. Since 2013 the Fund has advanced $218,705 in cash supporting creative industry projects across the County that build upon heritage, arts and culture.
The County has a rich diversity of festivals including; the agricultural fairs, Art Walk, Canada Food Day, Aquafest, Fusion, Cornfest, Aamjiwnaang Powwow and Cultural Celebration and many others. It’s strong performing arts centers including; Victoria Playhouse, Imperial Theatre and Huron County Playhouse host excellent performances attracting sold out audience attendances. Museums and art galleries such as Stones and Bones and the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery are providing world-class exhibits and shows.
There is also a growing number of private engineering, design, multimedia, printing, film, food, music and arts and cultural businesses.
Given its location between Toronto and Detroit, which are building strong creative industries, Sarnia-Lambton can service and build off opportunities within these clusters. For example, in Toronto the creative sector generates $9 billion of Toronto’s GDP annually and employs 130,000 people. Over $1.19 billion was spent on film and television in 2013. Presently, in Sarnia a film company is shooting a production that will see 160 people in the community for five days of shooting. This brings significant economic impact and there is opportunity to pursue more of this work. Other examples are local media firms with offices in Toronto, engineering designers exporting their services to Toronto and beyond and the new South Western International Film Festival (SWIFF) recently held here.
Building on the community’s new umbrella brand, Discoveries That Matter and our recent recognition as an Intelligent Community, SLEP will continue to work with community partners to advance opportunities in the creative industries to ensure Sarnia-Lambton captures its share of this expanding sector.
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