WATERLOO, Ont. – A Waterloo-based high tech company is getting a $15 million grant from the Ontario government to help with a $169 million research and development project.

Premier Kathleen Wynne says the grant to Sandvine, a global leader in networking equipment, will help create about 75 new jobs and protect 267 existing positions.

Wynne says grants from the government’s Jobs and Prosperity Fund are needed to help keep Ontario’s diversified economy expanding, noting that 85 per cent of Sandvine’s revenues come from exports.

She says businesses look at other jurisdictions when they want to expand, and insists it’s important that the provincial government be willing to partner with them.

Wynne says a similar $2.5 million grant from the jobs fund helped keep a tomato processing plant in Leamington operating after Heinz pulled out of the community.

She says that grant was a big part of the success of French’s ketchup in Ontario.

“These partnerships grow out economy and they create jobs,” Wynne said.