What will Amazon’s Arrival mean to Capital?
Distribution warehouse would bring much-needed jobs to Ottawa’s east end
Ottawa might not be on Amazon’s short list for a second headquarters, but the online retail giant still appears to be interested in the nation’s capital.
Amazon will be setting up a large-scale distribution centre in a rural area of Ottawa’s east end, CTV reported, citing sources, on Thursday afternoon. And with that would come roughly 1,000 jobs.
Later that night, Andrew Leslie, the member of Parliament for Orléans, confirmed CTV’s story to the CBC.
Leslie clammed up on Friday as did others reached by this newspaper who’d potentially have knowledge of the deal.
CTV’s scoop seems to have preempted what would have been a photo-op-heavy press conference featuring an array of smiling politicians and business types announcing a good-news story.
But despite the radio silence on Friday, there was still something to be gleaned from what Amazon’s arrival would mean for the city and the east end.
Amazon will be moving into a massive 1.02-million-square-foot industrial facility that is now under construction near the interchange for Boundary Road and Highway 417. The facility will contain 99 truck bays and more than 1,000 parking spaces.
The location would give truck traffic ideal access to the facility, which would see hundreds of trucks moving thousands of packages containing Amazon orders, everything from aviator sunglasses to zebra costumes, packed and shipped on a daily basis.
“It will employ approximately 1,000 people, good middle-class jobs, and it’s going to be a transportation hub,” Leslie told CBC. “We have been working with Amazon for a couple of months now and we are just thrilled that it’s all coming to maturation.”
Amazon already has seven distribution centres in Canada employing more 3,500 full-time employees.
Leslie also said the deal to bring Amazon’s distribution centre to Ottawa required involvement from federal, provincial and municipal officials.
City records show that Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson held a meeting with Patrick Robert, manager of public policy for Amazon Canada’s fulfilment Services, on Jan. 11. Also invited to the meeting were Mathieu Gravel, the City of Ottawa’s director of issues and outreach, and Stephen Willis, the city ’s general manager of planning, infrastructure and economic development.
When asked for specific comment on the project, Watson only said he welcomes any investment in the city. He would not confirm Amazon’s arrival in Ottawa.
“That’s up to them to make an announcement, if they’re going to make an announcement,” he said.
Should it materialize, the possibility of so many new jobs clearly delighted the mayor. “On a scale of one to 10, it would be a 10 because the jobs-to-residents ratio is significantly lower in the east end than any other part of the city. That’s always been a real stumbling block to economic growth in the east end — we haven’t had the jobs so we don’t have the infrastructure,” Watson said.
“If we can get some more jobs in the east end, that gets people who are living in the east end to work in the east end, it’s good for them, it’s good for their quality of life, and it eases up some of the congestion we have on the 417 and 174,” the mayor said.
Speaking of traffic, Watson said he doesn’t foresee any issues given the site’s location in a largely industrial area. “I don’t believe it’s going to be a factor if a company decides to move there.”
Ian Lee, an associate professor in the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, agreed that the addition of an Amazon distribution facility would be good news for the nation’s capital. However, as opposed to winning the bid for the company’s second headquarters, which would have brought thousands of high-paying jobs, employees working in Amazon distribution centres don’t make much more money than minimum wage.
In a corporate filing sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S. in April, the company stated that its median income for employees was $28,446 U.S. ($36,889.64 CDN) in 2017. The amount includes salaries and bonuses. In Canada, the company said it offers medical, vision and dental coverage to workers, as well as retirement savings plans, the opportunity to buy company shares and performance bonuses.
“Amazon has this very good image because they’re high-tech, they’re commerce. They are the future. It’s got a lot of buzz over the past 15 or 20 years as this amazing startup that has just grown and grown. But they’re not that different from Walmart in terms of the wages and the benefits and the working conditions,” said Lee. “They are really good workingclass jobs. That’s not a bad thing.”
With the manufacturing sector and several large retailers, with the most recent being Sears, closing their doors, Lee said it’s getting harder for people without postsecondary educations to find employment. He said the jobs Amazon would bring with its distribution centre would help support entrylevel workers.
“Those people have been left behind, they’ve had far fewer opportunities because the traditional blue-collar jobs that used to hire those people, those that didn’t go to university or college, they would go into manufacturing. Manufacturing has declined dramatically. There’s a need for jobs for working-class people,” he said.
Lee said the biggest hurdle that needs to be addressed is the location of the facility, which sits in a rural area just outside Carlsbad Springs. The location is not on any OC Transpo routes and, according to documents filed to the City of Ottawa by the project’s developers, “the closest service from OC Transpo is a peak hour Connection Route #222 to Vars Monday to Friday, generally 6-9 AM and 3-6 PM.”
(A Montreal-based firm is developing the site, not Amazon.)
The documents also state, “No bicycle parking will be provided as the subject site is not adequately serviced by improved cycling facilities and, by necessity, due to the site’s distance outside of the Urban Area.”
While the site will have ample parking, it would be a bit farfetched to expect all employees to own cars just to work at the distribution centre, Lee said.
“The city should, and may have, promised to create a new bus route to this address because of the sheer numbers,” said Lee. “Alternatively, Amazon can run a cost recovery or even partially subsidized shuttle service.”
Repeated calls to the councillor for the area, Stephen Blais, who also sits as chair of OC Transpo, went unanswered Friday.
The large industrial facility won’t be the only development happening in the area. The Capital Region Resource and Recovery Centre, a large-scale waste disposal and recovery facility, has been approved for a 175-hectare site between Boundary Road and Frontier Road, along the southern border of Highway 417.
If we can get some more jobs in the east end, that gets people who are living in the east end to work in the east end.