Aphria expects to add jobs with Leamington expansion
Health Canada’s approval Tuesday of another 200,000 square feet of greenhouse space for Aphria will allow the Leamington cannabis company to expand production capacity — and create more jobs. By the end of 2019, the company expects to have more than one million square feet of growing space and a workforce of 400 people, producing 100,000 kilograms of marijuana annually.
“In 2014, we had zero ( jobs),” said Cole Cacciavillani, founder and vice-president of growing operations for Aphria. “We have 184 employees from top down as of today.”
As the federal government continues to licence medical marijuana producers and readies the country for the legalization of recreational use, new jobs are being created every day.
“It’s a new industry and we are certainly excited about the additional jobs and wealth it will bring to the region,” said Matt Marchand, CEO of the Windsor-Essex Chamber of Commerce.
Along with the growth of production-related jobs, other jobs will be created through a “distribution component,” he said.
“Right now, we are at ground zero in the industry, but we see this as a great opportunity to bring new wealth and jobs into the region,” Marchand said.
A job recruitment process has also been launched by the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corp. (OCRC) for full-time and part-time “product specialists” who will soon staff storefronts in 27 communities, including Windsor and Chatham, where marijuana will be sold to customers across the province. “I just don’t think a lot of people are aware of how well (the industry is creating jobs),” said Leamington Mayor John Paterson.
“You have packaging and boxing plants, labelling companies. You have a lot of trucking firms around here running at full capacity.” The local greenhouse industry was already thriving and the addition of marijuana business has provided an added boost, he said.
“We have entertained some big players who are looking at Leamington now to locate,” Paterson said. He guessed about 30 to 40 per cent of jobs created within the local marijuana industry are considered “entry-level” or “just above minimum wage.”
“But the rest of them you are talking $60,000 to $100,000 wages — or even above that,” Paterson said. “There is a lot of professionalism involved when you are talking about the science, research and marketing the industry requires.”
That job growth is now starting to translate into construction of new homes, the mayor said. “They may live elsewhere in Essex County, but we have had recent growth in town of building high-end houses,” Paterson said. “I would expect that will continue with the jobs (marijuana compa- nies) are creating.”
In addition to 40 acres of greenhouse space at its primary location, Aphria is poised to open a second production location off Highway 77 that will add another 30 acres. “That campus should add an additional 250 (employees) in about a year’s time,” Cacciavillani said. And the jobs his company — and others — are offering are not just low-end salary labourer opportunities, he said.
“We will need operators, automated control, maintenance guys, lab technicians, scientists,” Cacciavillani said. “We will run like a pharmaceutical plant.” Another sign of local growth occurred Monday, when Kingsville town council approved zoning applications for three greenhouse operations to produce medical marijuana, pending Health Canada approvals.
JEM Farms, Rico Roots Plant Farm and DC Farms each received re-zoning approvals to produce medical marijuana.
Essex County’s vast greenhouse produce industry has allowed companies like Aphria to find workers who could transfer many of their growing and production skills into the cultivation of marijuana. Cacciavillani said the company has not had any issues finding qualified employees, but the explosion of the industry throughout the country may make it more difficult as the sector grows and employees are in demand. “Industries we will draw from are agriculture, food processing, science-based labs, pharmaceuticals,” Cacciavillani said.
“In the short-term, we should be able to find people, but long-term might be a problem.”