While the economic news this spring and summer has been dominated by site preparation work for the Volkswagen/PowerCo EV battery plant in St. Thomas, YXU-1 is back in the news.
You would be correct in pointing out when was YXU-1 ever in the news.
Perhaps you know it better as the Amazon fulfillment centre located on the site of the former Ford Canada St. Thomas Assembly Plant, which closed in 2011 after 44 years of production.
YXU by the way is the three-letter identifying code for London International Airport, even though the plant is situated in Southwold Township.
The facility was expected to begin operations early this year and then it was suggested a 2024 opening may be more in line.
Well, this week Amazon Canada announced the centre north of Talbotville will open on Oct. 1.
Hiring for the two-million-square-foot facility will begin in September.
It’s music to the ears of Southwold Mayor Grant Jones.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he admitted. “We’ve been working with Broccolini (the Montreal-based builder/developer that has long teamed up with Amazon) and Amazon for several years now and finally it has come to fruition that the doors are going to be opened.”
Broccolini had announced in 2021 it would have three mega projects in Southwold, London and Cambridge on the go presumably for Amazon.
When we talked to Sean Dyke, CEO of St. Thomas Economic Development Corporation in the spring of 2021, he referred to the Sunset Drive property as one of the best industrial sites in the province.
“As far as access, pricing and layout of the site itself. It’s in a great spot with access to labour. Everything really hits there.”
According to this week’s announcement, the intent is to hire more than 1,000 regular full-time employees who will work alongside state-of-the-art robotics technology to process up to 750,000 items a day.
An unanswered question at this time is whether will there be provisions to offer transit service or ride-sharing to the facility.
The centre is not accessible by public transit, proving a barrier to these individuals seeking employment who do not have a vehicle or are a one-vehicle family.
Jones says that has yet to be worked out.
“They are working on that solution still. They are starting the hiring process so they don’t exactly know where the people are coming from.
“Until they know that piece of the puzzle, it’s hard for them to predict exactly what their needs are going to be.”
In a previous conversation with Sean Dyke, he cited the example of a firm in the Listowel area.
“There is a company there called Listowel Technologies, a Japanese auto parts maker and they actually shuttle people in from the Kitchener-Waterloo area to get to work.
“They pay for that. It wouldn’t be unheard of for companies to do that. Obviously, there is a cost to that but you get the labour force that you need.”
“We would like to get transit in place. We’re not slowing down on trying to do it. We think with Amazon being there, it’s another reason for us to work hard on it.”
In a conversation with St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston at the beginning of this year, he indicated he was feeling very comfortable about the prospect of provincial approval for a regional transit pilot project linking St. Thomas with London to include the Amazon facility and the Maple Leaf Foods processing plant in South London.
The optimism was based on a conversation with Associate Minister of Transportation Stan Cho at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in January of this year.
Speaking with Preston yesterday (Aug. 4) he hopes to meet with Cho and Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario annual general meeting later this month in London.
“And it isn’t just Amazon, it is truly St. Thomas and London and whether that would also mean North Star Windows and Maple Leaf Foods and eventually Volkswagen.
“We would like to get transit in place. We’re not slowing down on trying to do it. We think with Amazon being there, it’s another reason for us to work hard on it.
“We just need to get transportation together between the two places (St. Thomas and London) and Amazon adds fuel to the fire.”
“Amazon is committed to supporting the long-term economic vibrancy of Southwold Township.”
The opening of the Amazon fulfillment centre in October is just the beginning, promises Jones.
With new residential development in and around Talbotville, Jones says it will be a challenging couple of years coming up for Southwold council.
“We have a lot more things on the plate coming forward, and right now we’re keeping our staff really busy keeping up with all the development that’s being pushed our way and the next couple of years are going to be challenging for council to get our heads wrapped around how we are going to do everything.”
In a media release Harsh Khaitan, the company’s director of regional operations noted, “Amazon is committed to supporting the long-term economic vibrancy of Southwold Township.
“By creating more than 1,000 good jobs and deploying our world-class logistics technology, we look forward to supporting this community and continuing to deliver exceptional service to our customers.”
AFFORDABLE HOUSING UPDATE
We understand the hiring and training of staff for the 45-unit affordable housing project developed by the city and Indwell is now underway.
And it seems a few tenants are now in the process of moving in.
Indwell currently operates the Railway City Lofts downtown above the city’s transit centre.
In April of this year, we spoke with Julie Ryan, Indwell community engagement coordinator, about the Queen Street project known as The Station.
In addition to the 45 one-bedroom suites, there will be a common room and staff offices.
“We’ll have about 10 staff in different roles that will help support our tenants,” explained Ryan.
“Some of those roles include nurses, addiction support, food security, peer support and housing support workers.
“Tenants can engage in different kinds of programming, fun stuff as well as learning new skills.
“It’s to help them get back on their feet and get their health stabilized and look at what they want to do in their future.”
The Station will offer permanent housing as opposed to Railway City Lofts which is transitional housing with some tenants moving over to the Queen Street units.
We have been invited to tour The Station later this month and an update will appear in this corner following that.
Related post:
A SIMPLE MISSION WHEN IT COMES TO EDUCATION
Earlier this week, Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced school boards will be required to publicly report their teacher professional development sessions.
It’s one of the first mandates handed down by the minister under legislation that gives him greater control over school boards.
Lecce says the first set of regulations under the recently passed Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will help “refocus” boards on academic achievement, life and job skills.
So, what is the act and why is it needed, according to Lecce and the provincial government?
Up until now, school boards set their own education priorities, resulting in differences across the education system.
While not strictly education-related, there is a perfect local example of this if you remember Ryan Gibbons. The 12-year-old youngster died in 2012 after suffering a severe asthma attack at Straffordville Public School.
Before his death, school boards across the province had differing policies on whether asthmatic children could carry their inhalers with them while in school.
In Ryan’s case that was not allowed.
Ryan’s Law was then Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Jeff Yurek’s private member’s bill that ultimately was passed in 2015.
At the time Yurek noted, “This bill represents some common sense that most parents would think occurs already in our schools.”
The question now is will The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act ensure common sense prevails across all school boards?
So this act is supposed to assist students and families by:
- Improving accountability and transparency by allowing the Minister of Education to set priorities in important areas on student achievement, like reading and math, and requiring school boards to update parents on progress
- Requiring school boards to publicly post a multi-year Board Improvement Plan that reflects the minister’s priorities for student achievement, creating authority to deploy personnel to support school boards when needed, along with greater oversight over provincially funded tax dollars
- Ensuring new teachers and educators have the skills they need to teach students effectively in math, reading and literacy
- Directing school boards to increase engagement and reporting to parents on student achievement and ensuring parents have easy access to the information they need to meaningfully engage with their children’s education and success
- Building schools faster and implementing measures to utilize current school spaces, ensuring Ontario is getting more classrooms into communities who need them
- Strengthening the requirement for school boards to have a code of conduct for boards of trustees, creating a neutral dispute resolution process and authority to standardize and mandate training requirements for school board leadership
- Building on our progress to establish a leading system of student safety and educator oversight, furthering measures to expedite disciplinary decisions for educators convicted of a criminal offence
- Expanding eligibility for therapy counselling for student victims of sexual abuse through the Ontario College of Teachers
- Providing for more consistent approaches to student learning and well-being, including on student mental health
- Improving processes at the Ontario College of Teachers and College of Early Childhood Educators to enable them to operate more efficiently, including more consistent disciplinary processes.
Lecce stresses, “Our mission is simple: drive continuous improvement to Ontario’s education system so that we graduate the brightest, most ambitious, skilled and entrepreneurial students in the country.”
He adds, “We are sending a signal across the province: we must – and we will – do better to ensure your children get a quality education that leads them to a good-paying job, home ownership and a life of opportunity.”
A lot of ifs and external factors will ultimately determine the success of that last statement.
Plenty of well-educated individuals with a good-paying job are not making inroads when it comes to the housing market.
FOR THE CALENDAR
The city’s emergency shelter The Inn, in partnership with the CMHA, The Salvation Army, Indwell and Southwestern Public Health, is putting on a fourth annual International Overdose Awareness event on Aug. 31, from 4 until 7 p.m. in the parking lot at White and Centre streets in St. Thomas.
The Nameless, which provides harm reduction outreach services, was a key player in last year’s presentation but we are uncertain of their role this year. We will advise of their status.
The event is a chance to support and be supported. An opportunity to learn about services in the community and what you can do to help.
Perhaps a good opportunity for many in the community to come out and see what is being done.
At last year’s gathering, we heard Mathew’s story, as recounted by his mother Anna Maria Iredale of St. Marys. You can read about how she lost her son to fentanyl here. Anna left us with this thought.
“I always thought if Mathew ever wanted to get into modelling he probably could have, but never thought he’d become a poster guy to not use drugs.”
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And a reminder, I can be heard weekday afternoons as news anchor and reporter on 94.1 myFM in St. Thomas. As always, your comments and input are appreciated.
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