CiB 2012 Profiile Book - City of Sarnia

Table of Contents 

Message from the Mayor 4 

Message from the Chair 5 

Introduction 6 

Sarnia - Some History 8 

Our Path 11 

Tidiness 12 

Environmental Action 14 

Heritage Conservation 18 

Urban Forestry 22 

Landscaped Areas 26 

Floral Displays 29 

Happenings in Sarnia 32 

2012 Committee Members 34

Introduction 

6 • Sarnia Community Profile Book 

Sarnia is a vibrant city of 71,000 nestled on the shores of Lake 

Huron and the St. Clair River. The citizens of the city of Sarnia cherish their 

green space and waterways as a respite to the heavy industry that 

dominates the landscape to the South. 

Sarnia has the largest concentration of chemical industries in Canada. A 

large oil pipeline from Alberta supplies the feed stocks. The start of the 

Petro Chemical based industry in our area was in 1855. When oil was first 

discovered in Petrolia and other spaces in Lambton County, a plank road 

for the use of oil wagons was built in 1864 to deliver crude oil to a small 

refinery in Sarnia. 

In 1871 the Imperial Oil Refinery was built in Sarnia. During WW2, this 

refinery was expanded and became the largest refinery in the British 

Commonwealth. 

Local industries and Businesses have been, and continue to be the major 

contributors to the life of the city. 

City of Sarnia – Quick Facts 

• The City’s Parks budget is 14.4 million or 4.2% of the municipal 

budget. 

• There are 116 parks in Sarnia 

• As sub divisions are developed, additional parkland is created and 

new trees are planted 

• On an annual basis Sarnia grows, plants and maintains 130,000 

bedding plants 

• Sarnia offers residents 25 soccer pitches, 18 baseball diamonds, 3 

football fields, 15 tennis courts and numerous buildings associated 

with each. 

• 60+ community events are held each year at the Dow People Place 

in Centennial Park. 

• Another 60+ events are held each year in other city parks throughout 

the city. 

• Each year the city plants up to 500 trees and maintains 1040 acres 

of parkland. 

• The city, in cooperation with the Kiwanis Club, operates the 

Children’s Animal Farm year round and maintains 20km of the 

Howard Watson Nature Trail and the Suncor Nature Way. 

• Sarnia has a history of creating innovative private/public partnerships 

to develop recreational facilities such as the YMCA, the RBC Center, 

soccer and gymnastics complexes, Sarnia Bay Marina, and the new 

BMX track in Canatara Park. 

The Communities in Bloom Committee invites you to explore our vibrant 

city in the true spirit of Communities in Bloom, utilizing this profile book.

Sarnia - Some History 

Below - St.Clair 

River Tunnel 

helps to move 

product 

quicker 

between 

Sarnia industry 

and the world. 


Crude oil was discovered in Petrolia oozing from portions of Bear 

Creek and also seeping from the ground in Oil Springs. It’s essential 

economic use was coal oil lamps as it was more plentiful, cheaper and 

easier to get than whale oil. Local crude was collected in oak barrels and 

shipped for some refining to a refinery in London. This crude was smelly 

and refining left large quantities of gasoline as a waste product. The 

waste was volatile, smelled offensive and was highly flammable. 

Londoners did not appreciate gasoline, especially when it was dumped 

into local waterways to get rid of it. When a fire burned the London 

refinery, and after the failure to raise enough money to build a pipeline 

from the oil fields to the London refinery the company decided to build a 

new refinery in Sarnia closer to the supply of water for cooling and 

transportation. A plank road was built from Petrolia to Sarnia to support 

the wagons carrying barrels of oil to the new plant. The company called 

itself Imperial Oil and was a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey and 

hired a researcher, Dr. R.K. Stratford, to design new refining techniques to 

remove the smell and improve the quality of the end product. Dr. Stratford 

used a process involving graduated heat and pressure in vessels and 

towers to "crack" the crude oil into a variety of "light ends" with different 

chemical and physical properties. The water in quantities 

large enough to cool and control these processes was 

readily available year round from the St. Clair River. The 

success of the automobile and many other mechanized 

contraptions (ships, tanks, and planes in particular) 

increased the market demand for a whole new variety of oil 

based products. Oil companies prospered and began to 

proliferate across the world's economies. 

World War II created a new problem when the Japanese 

captured the natural rubber plantations of the Far East. 

Because Dr. Stratford's cracking units could produce 

petro-chemicals that could be used to manufacture artificial 

rubber, a unique program was designed to build a polymer 

based artificial rubber plant for the war effort. Imperial Oil 

and Dow Chemical and others contributed their skilled 

research and design engineers and efforts to build the 

Polymer Corporation Rubber Plant in Sarnia using 

by-products from the Imperial Oil Refinery. The 

polymerization process required heat (steam) and electricity 

and Polymer built a large plant , again on the St. Clair, to 

provide these. Dow Chemical also needed the light ends 

from Imperial and the heat and power from Polymer for 

growing their plastics business, so they expanded in Sarnia 

as well.

Sarnia - Some History (continued) 

Below - 

Lambton 

College’s new 

Sustainable 

Smart Home. 

Help to lead 

Sarnia’s 

Innovation. 


term, high paying, jobs available after the long drought of the Great 

Depression. To accommodate these French Canadians, a new town called 

Bluewater was built across from the site of the new plant. A Church, 

school, municipal administration/government buildings were placed in the 

new community with the required services and infrastructure. When 

construction at Polymer was completed many of these people were offered 

jobs in the plant they had just built, or took other jobs in Sarnia as the 

petro-chemical industry expanded both during and after the war. These 

French Canadians became a vital and thriving part of the fabric of Sarnia 

and many settled here for good. As their population grew and their needs 

became greater, and more sophisticated and their quickly built separate 

community needed improvement or was being crowded by the increasing 

industrialization of their land, most of the people moved into greater Sarnia 

with a new Church and school to maintain their language and heritage 

characteristics. 

The newly formed Lambton Community College set up their original, if 

temporary, campus in some of the former Bluewater infrastructure until a 

suitable, larger and more complex college was built on the Eastern 

outskirts of the city .

Floral Displays 

The City of Sarnia maintains 1,040 acres of parkland. There are approximately 

116 parks in Sarnia. On an annual basis Sarnia grows, plants and 

maintains 130,000 bedding plants and plants well over 500 trees. The city 

creates floral displays throughout the community including extensive 

displays in Germain Park and on the Waterfront. Each display is carefully 

planned, from conception to 

planting. Each year the 

horticulture department hosts a 

“Seed Day”, which gives Sarnia 

residents to opportunity to start 

an amazing garden all on their 

own! They also offer Garden 

Workshops in the spring, where 

participants have the opportunity 

to choose the plants they 

would like to grow in their own 

20” planter! Both workshops 

sold out. 

For the first time ever, a pilot project has been started by the Communities 

in Bloom Committee, which encourages local restaurants to use fresh 

herbs in their menu recipes. Four local downtown restaurants were 

approached, and asked if they would be interested in using herbs grown 

by city horticulturalists, in exchange for having their restaurants menu 

posted at the garden site. The garden site is located in Centennial Park, at 

the base of Lochiel Street. Every business jumped at the chance, and now 

feature the fresh herbs on their daily menu specials, while bringing 

exposure to the Communities in Bloom initiative. 

Centennial Park 

A 1.7 km paved trail stretches from downtown, around to Sarnia Bay 

featuring interesting displays on local history and the Great Lakes, plus the 

Dow People Place entertainment centre, sports fields, dining, marinas, 

accommodation and more throughout the area. 

Germian Park 

Located in the heart of the City, on East Street next to the Strangway 

Community Centre, Germain Gardens and Arboretum is by far one of the 

most tranquil and beautiful locations you will ever visit. 

Germain Gardens were first planted in 1968 and although most of the 

trees are still there, many of the flowering shrubs have been replaced and 

others planted. An arbor with 60 hanging baskets will greet you upon your 

29 • Sarnia Community Profile Book

Floral Displays (con’t) 


entrance to the gardens. The gardens consist of many annuals, perennials, 

tropicals and standards. You will want to sit and relax on a bench to 

watch the hummingbirds and butterflies enjoy the flowers, along with you. 

Located just to the west of the Germain Gardens is our arboretum. The 

Arboretum contains more than 200 species of trees. Some of our unusual 

species are: Japanese Heartnut (Juglans ailantifolia var. cordiformis), Black 

Gum (Nyssa sylvatica), 

Sweetgum (Liquidambar 

styraciflua), Willow Oak 

(Quercus phellos) and Ginkgo 

biloba ‘Saratoga’. 

Sarnia is fortunate that we 

live in the Carolinian Forest 

Zone and are able to grow 

species that other parts of 

Ontario cannot. We also have 

included native trees into our 

arboretum such as the Tulip 

tree, Black Maple, Sugar 

Maple, Cucumber Tree, 

American Larch, American 

Beech, Sycamore, Pin Oak, 

Burr Oak, Red Oak, Redbud, 

Serviceberry and the list goes 

on. Come see for yourself. It’s worth the trip! 

Earlier this year, a prominent local donor contacted the City with a 

request to develop a Marigold Garden. Staff reviewed the proposal and 

engaged a landscape design company to prepare overviews of a potential 

project. In late May, these were presented to the donor for review and 

comments. The draft proposal was acceptable and the donor wishes to 

proceed with the project. In the recent Internal Parks Review, staff 

recommended to re-purpose existing parks to meet the changing demographics 

of the community. The creation of passive parks is a trend that a 

number of communities in Canada are undertaking to provide programming 

requested by an aging population. Passive parks have areas for individual 

and group activities ranging from meditation, tai chi and yoga. In addition, 

passive parks have walkways allowing people to view the flowers and 

enjoy all that nature provides. An area east of the Germain Flower Garden 

was chosen as the site for the Marigold Garden. This will be a Park within a 

Park and named Mary Ann’s Marigold Garden. The Garden will have 

meandering paths that will bisect a large Marigold garden. This area will 

also have other flowers to ensure color and full season growth. The 

pathways will connect to a passive area for yoga, tai chi and meditation.

2012 Communities in Bloom 

Committee Members 

Anne Marie Gillis City of Sarnia 

Patti Ross City of Sarnia – Municipal Arborist 

Krista Cowieson Master Gardeners 

Leona Holland Green Belt Task Force 

Lynda Gibb Member at Large 

Nora Penhale Photographer 

Wayne Wager Sarnia Heritage Committee 

Pamela Hansen Sarnia Horticultural Society/ Lambton Wildlife 

Committee 

Al Duffy Member at Large 

Judy Jones MIG Engineering 

Win McCall Member at Large 

Bev Horodyski Tourism Sarnia Lambton 

Vicki Praill Tourism Sarnia Lambton 

Diana Letourneau Sunshine Foundation 

Marilyn Rawson Sarnia Horticultural Society 

Barb Toye Sarnia Horticulture Society 

Cathy Coates Lambton Wildlife Committee 

Lori Hamel Johnson Holiday Inn 

Paula Stokes City of Sarnia, Parks and Recreation Department 

Mary Moulden Member at Large 

34 • Sarnia Community Profile Book

CiB 2012 Profiile Book - City of Sarnia

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