Community

RCI in Quinte West

RCI could be located anywhere in the world, but we chose Trenton. We do a lot of work in Ottawa, Toronto, New York, and Chicago, and Trenton is equidistant from all of those centres. Plus, we like the view. The Quinte area is not only beautiful, it has a spec­tacular quality of life.

When Peter May determined that he needed to expand the RCI facilities back in 2006, he began an extensive search across Ontario for a new home for the company. His search brought him to Quinte, and he liked what he saw. He polled the rest of the RCI crew, with the notion that if the majority of the folks were ready to relocate to Trenton, he’d make the leap. Eighty percent of the RCI crew were on board for the move, so RCI relocated to Trenton in 2007.

From the outset, Quinte and Trenton welcomed RCI, and in turn RCI supports the community, drawing from the local Trenton population to fill positions whenever possible. Peter and other senior members of RCI are often seen in the community – in fact Peter was Quinte’s 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year. RCI is a popular destination at the annual Trenton Doors Open event. A bit further afield, RCI has strong ties to Queens’ University in Kingston with its 3D scanning program.

We’ve found that when we open the doors during Doors Open, people are fascinated by what we do. We’re always shocked at the number of people that come through. In 2016, in just one day, we had almost 1,000 people visit and have a look around. Although for security reasons, RCI is not typically open to the public, it’s wonderful to share our work – we’re doing installations all around the world and it’s great that the people here at home can see what goes on. Many people are surprised we’re here in Trenton, but we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else; it’s a great place to be.