Provincial Government Launches First Job Site Challenge In Canada

Thursday, 28 November 2019 at 12:30

The Job Site Challenge will help attract advanced manufacturing investments and create thousands of jobs.

WOODSTOCK - The Ontario PC government is creating a province-wide Job Site Challenge, which is the first in Canada.

Dignitaries were at the Toyota Plant in Woodstock this morning to make the announcement.

Among them was Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction, Prabmeet Sarkaria.

"I am pleased to officially launch the Job Site Challenge. A Canadian first that will pave the way to help Ontario lure and attract major investments from automakers and other advanced manufacturers."

Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli and Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Ernie Hardeman were also in attendance.

The new tool will help identify mega sites that are shovel-ready where automakers and advanced manufacturers could invest in the province by building a large plant and creating thousands of jobs.

Sarkaria says today's announcement is incredibly important to a community like Woodstock.

"We have seen the impacts in terms of the new jobs that have been created, the supply chain that it supports but more importantly it is going to ensure that Ontario becomes again the economic engine of this country."

The Job Site Challenge is based on mega site programs that have helped several places in the United States, including New York, Tennessee and Alabama to attract large-scale investments to build auto or other advanced manufacturing plants.

The mega sites will be evaluated based on 13 criteria and a site selector, one that is internationally recognized, will endorse and validate sites to be included in the inventory of certified mega sites. The province and site selector will then lead a marketing campaign to showcase the selected sites to domestic and international investors, before the first shovel-ready sites are made available to the investors by next fall.

The Job Site Challenge is part of the province's plan to strengthen the competitiveness of the auto sector, which is called Driving Prosperity: The Future of Ontario's Automotive Sector.

Proposals will be accepted between January and March of next year.

You can visit here to learn more on how to apply.