[ssiguy]

One of the problems with Chatham.Kent and Sarnia is the lack of educational facilities.
Neither place has a university yet have a combined population of 240,000. It is a statistical fact that if young people have to leave an area to go to school they are much more likely not to return.
Not only is this due to meeting new friends and/or partners but also because those cities offer life long learning which would be impossible if the headed back home.
Sarnia is in the worse possible position as the nearest school is Western which is 100km away and after that it's 200km away to either waterloo/Laurier or Windsor. The only other cities of signicant size with no university are Barrie and Brantford but their situation isn't as bad as Sarnia's. Atleast Brantford is only 40km from Waterloo and only 25 from downtown Hamilton which atleast puts them within commuting distance. Barrie students atleast of taking GO transit to YorkU or UToronto. Sarnia and Chatham have no such transit options are a way out of commuting distance. I know Sarnia has a small Western campus but often they can hurt more than help. On one hand it encourages kids to go to university but then forces them to leave the city to finish their degrees or do post=graduate.
This is one of the reasons why smaller cities have lower levels of academic achievement.
I know McGuinty has announced he wants to build 4 new universities in the province. Personally I think Barrie and Sarnia will both be at the top of the list. That would make Sarnia a far more attractive option for young people and offer more cultural/social/sports amenities that the well educated can both afford and ussually demand of their chosen residence. Well educated people ussually have higher incomes and far more options of where they want to live and work which means a smaller city must have the many amenities and opportunities to both lure and keep them there.