Kitchener-Waterloo-Barrie Labour Market Monitor: Service Canada, January 2010

An overview of the Kitchener-Waterloo-Barrie Economic Region, which includes the Waterloo Regional Municipality, and the counties of Dufferin, Wellington and Simcoe. The Labour Market Monitor is a monthly report focusing on labour market information produced by a local Labour Market Information Analyst. For further information, contact: Joanne Delaney.

Labour Force Trends/Survey

Despite a growing population, the Kitchener-Waterloo-Barrie economic region saw its  labour force contract by 6,200, from January 2009 to January 2010, as fewer people were working or searching for work. During this period, net employment decreased by 17,300. Full-time employment fell by 17,100 while part-time employment remained steady. The employment rate fell by 2.7 percentage points to 63.8% and the participation rate fell by 1.6 percentage points to 69.8%. The number of unemployed people increased by 11,100 from January 2009 to January 2010, pushing the unemployment rate up from 6.9% to 8.5%. Over this same period, the provincial unemployment rate rose from 7.2% to 8.7%.

For more information, please visit the Statistics Canada website

Labour Market News by Industry

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation

Casino Rama has been granted a 25-year operating and development licence with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. About 3,000 people work at the casino, hotel and entertainment centre at Rama First Nation.

Orillia Laser Tag is being built on Peter Street South in Orillia in the former Party Planet building. The new facility will be operated by the Orillia Youth Social Enterprise Corporation. The organization will hire six unemployed or underemployed youth 16-29 years of age for one-year periods to assist them in gaining work experience.

Construction

The Kitchener Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) saw 66 new home starts in December 2009, a 51% increase from December 2008. Year-over-year construction starts dropped by 12.7% compared to 2008. All types of housing were below last year’s levels. Within the CMA Cambridge and Woolwich saw an increase in new home starts in 2009.

Fourth quarter 2009 housing starts in the Barrie CMA were 6.7% below the same quarter in 2008. This year saw 430 new home starts compared to 1420 in 2008, a decline of almost 69%. Single detached and apartment units represented the construction activity.

In the Guelph CMA, housing starts decreased by 17.6% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the same quarter in 2008. Construction was started on 567 homes in 2009 compared to 1087 in 2008 or a decline of 48%. Semi-detached housing starts rose this past year while starts for other housing types fell. Apartment starts were much lower at 54 than the 458 reported in 2008.

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, the value of building permits in the Kitchener CMA increased by 106.8% in December 2009 over December 2008. In the Guelph CMA, they rose 444% over the same time period and in the Barrie CMA the value fell by 38 percent.

Construction is to begin this spring on Kitchener’s new courthouse at Frederick Street and Duke Street. Integrated Team Solutions of Mississauga will design, build and finance the project. Completion is expected in three years.

Site preparation for Phase 1A of the Big Bay Point Resort in Innisfil was approved and will start in February. The first phase involves tree removal in the area of the marina and golf course.

The City of Guelph launched “Guelph Remastered”, a program that includes 25 construction projects funded in part by the federal and provincial Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. The projects must be completed by March 2011 and are expected to create 800 jobs in the area.

Health Care and Social Services

Cambridge Memorial Hospital is eliminating $11 million in costs. The hospital is combining wards and has begun to lay off 85 employees. Oncology and palliative care staff have been affected. The number of registered nurses will be reduced in favour of registered practical nurses for salary reasons. Nursing and administrative staff have accepted early retirements. Various wards and departments will be affected over the next six months.

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health will cut 13 jobs to reduce its budget. No further details are available.

The provincial government announced $300,000 in funding for facility improvements at five Barrie Social Service agencies. Various amounts of money will be given to: Camphill Communities, Simcoe Community Services, the Elizabeth Fry Society, Women and Children’s Shelter Barrie and Catulpa Community Support Services.

Information and Culture

Empire Theatres Gateway Park in Kitchener will begin renovations and upgrades this month. Completion of the interior and exterior work is expected by the spring.

Empire Theatres will start construction of a new 10-screen theatre in Waterloo at University Avenue and Ira Needles Boulevard in the spring. Opening is expected this fall. The theatre will be in a new commercial development by Ira Needles Development.

Quest Art School and Gallery opened on King Street in Midland. The organization previously ran programs in Penetanguishene.

Manufacturing

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. will shut down production of the Corolla and Matrix at its Cambridge plant for the first week of February due to a vehicle gas pedal recall. Lexus production will continue at the plant. Affected workers will participate in job training, maintenance work or other tasks. Toyota has temporarily stopped the sale of some Toyota models at dealerships.

Honda Motor Company Limited reduced production and cancelled overtime at the Honda Canada Alliston plant this month for its Civic model. The company plans to scale back production on Fridays in February.

Polyethics Industries Inc. in Orillia has expanded its production and added more than 100 jobs to a new facility in Newmarket.

A new three-year contract has been reached with workers at the Nadeco brick plant in Guelph.

Gerdau Ameristeel Cambridge Inc. settled a seven-month strike with its workers in December.

Professional, Scientific and Technical Services

ARISE Technologies Corporation in Waterloo has been selected to install a 150KW photovoltaic (PV) solar panel system for the Region of Waterloo. The system will be installed in mid-2010 on the Regional Operations Centre in Cambridge. The system installation will meet the Ontario Green energy Act requirements and is part of Ontario’s new Feed-In Tariff (FIT) Program.

Christie Digital Systems USA Inc. (Christie) in Kitchener purchased most of Luminetx Corp. located in Memphis, Tennessee. The sale includes the technology and intellectual property of VeinViewer, a vascular imaging system used for medical purposes. Christie will create a new division called Christie Medical Holdings Inc. to be known as Christie Medical.

Public Administration

The Conference Board of Canada released the Winter 2010 Metropolitan Outlook for the Kitchener CMA this month. The report shows a decline of 3.4% in Kitchener’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2009. GDP is forecast to rise by 3.3% in 2010 followed by increases of 4.2% each year from 2011 to 2014. Employment fell by 1.8% during 2009 with a further drop of 1% predicted in 2010. The unemployment rate rose to 9.6% and is forecast to improve slightly to 9.4% in 2010. Several sectors reported output losses in 2009: manufacturing (-13.6%), construction (-5.8%), and wholesale and retail sales (-5.2%). Output in finance insurance and real estate grew by 3.5% during 2009.

Barrie Police Services will hire 10 new officers to meet demands from an increasing population. Four are to be hired in May and another six in September.

The Drivers and Vehicle Licence office on Belmont Avenue in Kitchener will temporarily close the end of this month. It will reopen once it is converted to a Service Ontario centre. Two other vehicle and licence offices in the city and one in Waterloo will continue to provide service. All four locations will provide Ontario health card services as of May 2010.

Trade, Wholesale and Retail

Princess Auto will build a new store in south Barrie. When open, the company will employ an additional twenty workers.

Japan Camera in Barrie’s Kozlov Center closed this month after 23 years in business. The owners retired.

The United Cigar Store at Peter Street and Mississauga Street in Orillia will close at the end of March. Sales have declined due to the relocation of the local bus terminal, fewer people smoking and an increase in online reading.

Transportation and Warehousing

Greyhound Canada announced service cuts to 60 communities throughout Ontario effective mid-April. The company will eliminate the twice-daily service between Midland, Penetanguishene and Barrie. The Alliston route will also be cut affecting service to Palgrave, Beeton, Cookstown, Angus, CFB Borden, Highway 9 and 50 and Bolton. As well Alliston service to Toronto will be cut. The changes are due to low ridership and operation costs.

Midland Transit discontinued bus service to Georgian College on Saturdays and weekdays before 8:15 a.m. and after 4:15 p.m. The change took effect this month and is due to low passenger numbers.

Transit fares in the City of Guelph will rise in February. Cash fares will go up 25 cents while bus passes will increase by 5 percent.

Note: In preparing this bulletin, Service Canada has taken care to provide clients with labour market information from reliable sources that is timely and accurate at the time of publication. Since labour market conditions are dynamic, some of the information presented here may have changed since the bulletin was published. Readers are encouraged to also refer to other sources for additional information on the local economy and labour market. Information contained in this bulletin does not necessarily reflect official policies of Service Canada.