A week after city council received a growth analysis study predicting the population of St. Thomas will almost double by 2051, members Monday evening (June 17) got an insight into where many of those newcomers may live.
A sprawling residential development stretching from Wellington Road northwest to Major Line is being proposed by two developers.
Landrise Developments/Don West Construction and Lecram Inc. have acquired the majority of land in the Sandymount Development Area with a proposal to add almost 1,500 housing units, including single detached homes, townhouses and high-density apartments.
Category Archives: Employment and jobs
Going from trying to get houses built to helping farmers produce food for those who will live in those houses, the impact of a cabinet shuffle on MPP Rob Flack
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You could say Rob Flack is going back to his roots.
His agricultural roots, that is.
Late Thursday afternoon in the Doug Ford cabinet shuffle, the Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP found himself part of the major shake-up, becoming Minister of Farming, Agriculture and Agribusiness.
He had been Associate Minister of Housing as a member of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, a posting that was part of a cabinet shuffle last fall.
Flack was given a specific mandate on attainable housing and modular homes reporting to Paul Calandra, the new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
It’s a return of sorts to his early days following his election in 2022.
Flack had been appointed one of two parliamentary assistants to Lisa Thompson, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in July of that year.
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There is no denying the numbers, St. Thomas is where possibilities live
Without a doubt, this is an exciting time to be a resident of St. Thomas.
Exciting that is if you are not averse to change of epic proportions.
And as Sean Dyke, CEO of the St. Thomas Economic Development Corporation pointed out a presentation to city council on May 13, exciting because his organization gets to share “the really good news stories.”
Dyke continued, “I recall being here 15 years ago at the height of a pretty negative time in St. Thomas talking about a lot of businesses that were leaving.
“And, it’s so nice to be here at a time when we can talk about the complete opposite. The strides we’ve taken as a community to push this forward.”
To indicate just how busy the EDC has been, Dyke noted over the past fiscal year ending in March, they have had 856 consultations with different businesses.
From that, 256 new jobs were created in the community, which includes all of Elgin county.
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Modular housing: Part of the solution to put the ‘missing middle’ into homes they can afford while building equity
Ontario plans to move ahead with its plan to build more modular homes including on government surplus lands.
That was the message from Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP and Associate Minister of Housing in the province’s effort to cut red tape when it comes to increasing the housing supply.
We talked with Flack shortly after the media release went out to delve deeper into the concept of modular homes and their role in the future.
He advised a housing forum was held in Toronto last November where various housing stakeholders got together for a day to identify deliverables needed to speed up homebuilding in the province.
Among those attending was St. Thomas homebuilder Doug Tarry.
“And one of the pieces is modular or factory-built homes and so we’ve been working on getting this market sounding out.
“There are all types of modular homebuilders in Ontario. Big scale ones down to smaller ones.”
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‘The year ahead represents, to me, a bridge to prosperity and a critical shift from past to present’ – Central Elgin Mayor Andrew Sloan
The St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce Lunch with the Mayors gathering is typically a non-controversial State of the Union-type event, more jovial than jousting.
That all changed with last year’s get-together which came on the heels of Bill-63, the St. Thomas Central Elgin Boundary Adjustment Act.
Central Elgin lost hundreds of acres of farmland to St. Thomas for that municipality to assemble 1,500 acres for what would become the Yarmouth Yards industrial park and ultimately the home of Volkswagen/PowerCo and the EV battery giga-plant.
Much of the question-and-answer time slot was put to good use by former Central Elgin Mayor Sally Martyn to hold St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston’s feet to the fire on her municipality’s lack of involvement in the land deal.
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The City of St. Thomas ‘is at the forefront of this exciting new chapter for southern Ontario’s automotive sector’ – Liberal MP Filomena Tassi
St. Thomas was the recipient of another economic shot in the arm Thursday (Jan. 11) morning as announced by Filomena Tassi, the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
“I am pleased to announce that the Government of Canada is investing $2 million in Amino North America to expand its facility here by over 40,000 square feet and add a new manufacturing line to meet the demands for its automotive products across North America.”
The expansion at the Highbury Avenue plant will create and maintain 45 jobs, with construction already underway.
It’s another indicator of the re-industrialization of southwestern Ontario.
That was the observation from London North Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos.
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MPP Rob Flack asserts his ‘experience and leadership’ earned him associate housing minister post
At the beginning of the month, Premier Doug Ford announced changes to his cabinet, precipitated by the resignation of Steve Clark who had served as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
Paul Calandra was installed as the new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Rob Flack was promoted to Associate Minister of Housing with a mandate on attainable housing and modular homes.
Clark had been at the heart of the Greenbelt development scandal, in which it was found he had violated ethics outlines included in the Members’ Integrity Act.
We caught up with Flack a week after his appointment to discuss his new role, however, there have been substantial developments since then.
Specifically on Thursday, Ford pulled off a complete turnaround on his plan to open up protected Greenbelt lands for residential development.
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‘If you can get people talking about you because of what you’ve done, then more people are listening.’ – St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston
There is no denying St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston is an upbeat kinda person, no matter the situation confronting him.
It would be a safe bet to say he could be branded Jovial Joe without a whole lot of pushback from the mayor’s corner.
For example, Preston and a city delegation, including councillors Tara McCaulley and Steve Wookey along with city manager Sandra Datars Bere attended this year’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference earlier this week in London and we caught up with him at the culmination of the gathering and his exuberance was palpable.
According to a release prior to the conference, the city advocacy work was to “focus around resources to create new and augment existing community mental health supports, support for capital investments in affordable housing, increased support for inter-community transportation connections and initiatives, capital funding for new childcare spaces, investments in social assistance programs and administration, and support for legislative changes and funding to alleviate pressures faced by St. Thomas Police.”
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Amazon opening this fall is another employment safeguard in ‘recession-proofing’ St. Thomas and beyond
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.
