Economy
Total employment for Lambton County (including the City of Sarnia) is 66,370. Of those 9,760 (14.7%) are employed in manufacturing; 7,545 (11.4%) in retail trade; 5,080 (7.7%) in accommodation and food services; and 3,155 (4.8%) are employed in agriculture.
Petrochemical and refining is the largest manufacturing sector in Lambton County's economy. Established during World War II, Sarnia and the area along the St. Clair River is home to a major processing centre for oil from Alberta.
In late 2010 and early 2011 a number of companies announced plans to provide ethane from the Marcellus Shale in the USA to Lambton County industries; providing a potential new feedstock for the production of ethylene in Lambton County.
Lambton County is the site of North America's first drilled commercial oil well at Oil Springs in 1858.
Tourism is another important industry in Lambton County, especially along the lake and river. The community of Grand Bend, and the Pinery Provincial Park are especially popular tourist destinations, attracting thousands of people each week throughout the summer to their long, uninterrupted beaches. The part of Lambton County along Lake Huron known as Lambton Shores depends almost entirely upon the seasonal industries of tourism and agriculture for its well-being. There are also popular conservation areas along the St. Clair River, and a conservation area named Rock Glen Falls near Arkona along the Ausauble River internationally known for its Devonian Era fossils.
Lambton County has 2,346 farms with a total of 592,793 acres. The largest single use of farmland in Lambton is crop production,with 85% of total farmland reported as land in crops. Over the last 20 years soybeans, wheat, and grain corn have accounted for over 80% of total area crop production in Lambton. The fourth and fifth leading crops are sugar beets and hay. Among other crops oats, barley and mixed grains are also produced. Top animal production includes dairy, beef, hog, and poultry...
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Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant’s economy is a coarse symbol of the soul’s economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)