A growing London auto parts firm is St. Thomas-bound for more elbow room, a black eye to London worth up to 200 jobs.

The owner of Sle-Co Plastics Ltd. says he can’t get the water and electrical services he needs to expand in London, despite assurances by Mayor Joe Fontana himself.

Instead, he’s spent $2 million to buy an empty St. Thomas auto parts plant and will fork out another $2 million to overhaul it, which he says will eventually employ about 200 people.

“Someone promised us they could get water to us before they got elected, and then they couldn’t. It’s rather frustrating,” said Jeff Sleegers of Sle-Co Plastics Ltd., who pointed the finger at Fontana.

Hitting in an election year, in a city hammered by industrial job losses, whose mayor promised 10,000 new jobs over five years, Sle-Co’s move raises the question how London — still hobbled by 7.8% unemployment — can attract new jobs if it can’t hang onto existing employers.

Mayoral challenger Matt Brown, in a jab at Fontana, said Tuesday “the city needs more than job targets.”

Coun. Paul Hubert also weighed in, saying the city has to do a better job communicating before things reach a “crisis situation” such as a business deciding to expand elsewhere.

Sle-Co employs about 100 people at three sites — two in London, another in Strathroy.

While those remain, the company is still leaving for its expansion — to the former A. Schulman plant on South Edgeware Rd. in St. Thomas, once an industrial wasteland with one shuttered factory after another.

Sle-Co will be in good company: Two other firms from London, Masco Canada Ltd. and Forest City Casting, consolidated operations on the same road in St. Thomas in recent years.

Sleegers said his new St. Thomas plant has everything he needs, including water, power and a rail spur.

“I pay city taxes but don’t get city services,” he said. “My taxes in St. Thomas will be the same I have here for three times the building.”

Fontana said Sle-Co’s move “came as a surprise,” because he thought the city was still working with it to expand here.

“I want some answers,” said Fontana, who noted he met with Sleegers.

“He obviously found a good deal (in St. Thomas). I can’t control every business decision, but I can tell you we have been working with him to find options to bring services out there,” he said.

Sleegers said he has plenty of land to expand his main plant on Creamery Rd. in London, but lacks a water line to install a needed sprinkler system or extra power capacity to add more machines.

He said city officials first told him it would cost about $700,000 to extend the water line to his site, but that later ballooned to $6 million because he was told a pumping station would be needed.

He said he was unable to reach a deal to share the cost of the water line with other potential users.

Sleegers said it’ll be “business as usual” at his London facilities, but he doesn’t rule out shifting some jobs out of London in the future.

“If we don’t have the services here for some of the new programs and new jobs, then we have no choice but to ship them over there,” he said.

While city hall doesn’t create jobs, Brown said he believes London can’t just throw out job targets without plans to back them up. “We can’t make promises without a roadmap supporting them.”

Another city councillor, Stephen Orser, tried to find a silver lining, saying “St. Thomas is much more desperate.”

At least Londoners who have to drive to St. Thomas to work won’t be on welfare, he said.

Sle-Co approached St. Thomas and got a good deal, said Sean Dyke of that city’s economic development corporation.

“The pricing was obviously attractive . . . the taxes and ongoing cost are a little bit lower as well,” he said.

SLE-CO PLASTICS LTD.