GE breaks ground on Welland, Ont., factory

As Ontario’s manufacturing sector frets about its competitiveness and the uncertain future of the province’s auto industry, General Electric Co. is set to break ground Friday on a new factory in Welland, Ont., that will employ 220 people with the possibility of significant expansion.

Beginning in 2018, the plant will build reciprocating gas engines used in power generation, as well as components that can be used in diesel engines for locomotives.

The decision to build the factory in Welland, announced in June, was a blow to Waukesha, Wis., which has built engines since 1906 at a plant that was acquired by GE in 2010. One of GE’s gas engines is even named after the town.

Elyse Allan, chief executive of GE Canada, said access to export financing was one of the primary reasons to move production from Waukesha to Welland. The U.S. ExportImport Bank, which helps exporters by offering financing and insurance to their customers, has been rendered toothless by a 14-month-long Senate impasse that has left it unable to approve transactions of more than US$10 million.

Export Development Canada (EDC), meanwhile, has a strong relationship with GE, Allan said.

The issues at the U.S. Export-Import Bank “certainly make that partnership with EDC very valuable to us,” Allan said in an interview. “In part, we were looking at Canada because of the great relationship that we have with EDC.”

Welland, in the Niagara region of southern Ontario, also had the land, workforce, nearby universities and proximity to the border that GE was looking for. The company also received financial incentives from the city and the Niagara Region and help from the provincial govern- ment in getting the necessary approvals to move ahead with construction as quickly as possible, Allan said.

The city of approximately 50,000 people has been hit hard by plant closures in recent years, including shutdowns by farm equipment manufacturer Deere & Co. in 2008, auto supplier Henniges Automotive in 2011 and turbine blade maker PowerBlades Industries in 2015.

“We were really fortunate in that Welland had both the land site that suited our needs coupled with this access to the workforce,” Allan said. “They have had some challenges there, so you have a ready workforce that’s keen to work and keen to get back to work.”

The Welland plant will be known as a “Brilliant Factory,” part of a new network of GE facilities that will use data science and analytics to improve quality and efficiency. “We can get real-time data and actually be monitoring live and adjust performance in real time to ensure that we’re getting optimum quality and performance from the plant,” Allan said.

At first, the plant will employ approximately 220 people but Allan is optimistic that it will eventually be much bigger than that.

“We are working with all our other businesses to see who else might want to come to this site,” she said. “We have space on the site to both expand the building that we’re in as well as build a whole other additional building.”

WORKFORCE THAT’S KEEN TO WORK AND KEEN TO GET BACK TO WORK.