Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter has emphasized that despite the pandemic, there has been significant investment in the city.
He noted that Oshawa is one of the fastest growing communities in Canada with a 2.1 per cent growth rate in 2020 and 2.3 per cent in 2021, and will continue to see even more future residential development in the Kedron and Columbus neighbourhoods.
Oshawa issued over $470 million in building permit values in 2020 and over $560 million in 2021, he pointed out in his 2022 State of the City Address to an audience of business and community leaders on March 30 at the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce’s Mayor’s Luncheon.
Mayor Carter mentioned some of the new industrial and commercial developments across the city, and highlighted the planned redevelopment of the former Canada Post building in the downtown. He said investment from global leaders in industry and development are bringing new quality jobs to Oshawa.
Referring to the re-start of the Oshawa Assembly Plant, Mayor Carter said General Motors’ up to $1.3 billion investment to retool and reopen the plant, has created up to 1,800 jobs attracting a diversified workforce, with 60 per cent of the assembly team made up of female workers. He noted GM Canada has also invested $170 million in a 55-acre autonomous vehicle test track and new stamping manufacturing facility, all of which position Oshawa to play a major role in a new competitive auto industry.
He talked about Oshawa’s 4.7 per cent GDP growth as projected by the Conference Board of Canada as well as the fast pace of residential development in the city.
Mayor Carter said Oshawa has become a community of choice for new homeowners from across Canada looking for a great city in which to live, work, play and learn. He spoke to Oshawa being a leader in health care, post-secondary education and information technology and touched on the growing field of research and new developments at Durham College, Ontario Tech University and Trent University Durham GTA.
Calling for renewed hope and optimism, Oshawa Mayor Carter spoke of the modernization of city services that has created a culture of partnerships with a focus on customer excellence. He urged local leaders to continue to work in partnership with the city and one another so that all may embrace the future together.
The Mayor thanked the audience for inspiring, motivating, encouraging and supporting one another during the pandemic. He spoke of how the spirit of Oshawa remains strong having withstood the test of the past two years by coming together to support friends, family and neighbours. He noted the success of the #OshawaLovesLocal campaign, an initiative supported by the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Task Force to support small and community-owned businesses in Oshawa hit hard by Covid-19.
“This moment in history has taught us a great deal about the strength of the Oshawa community and our businesses,” said Mayor Carter. “Great cities do hard things; they solve big issues and create new opportunities to achieve success. This is a special time for the great City of Oshawa and our future is bright. Let us embrace our future together.”
Quick Facts:
- The City of Oshawa has been recognized as No. 1 in development approval timelines in the GTA.
- The city achieved robust construction growth in 2021 with strong economic growth across multiple sectors.
- In 2021, Oshawa reported its second highest annual total construction value on record at $564,582,600.
- To complement the rapid pace of residential growth with economic diversity and new job creation, $51.5 million in Commercial, $36.6 million in Industrial and $8.5 million in Governmental/Institutional permits was issued in 2021.
- This growth created 17,395 square meters of new commercial floor space, 6,146 square meters of industrial and 1,985 square meters of institutional floor space in 2021.
- Major recent projects include Costco Wholesale Canada; Lakeside Business Centre, a new multi-tenant industrial building by Beedie on Property Ltd.; and Panattoni Development Company’s new state-of-the-art industrial facility.
- Additionally, with prestige employment lands available for development in Northwood Business Park, Oshawa is well-positioned to continue supporting opportunities for job growth in the community.
- The city is looking forward to next steps in the Lakeshore East GO Train extension, which has an estimated economic value of $1.1 billion in transit-oriented, walkable urban development. The expansion is estimated to generate 21,000 permanent new jobs.