Job Termination
Job None in ValleyFor the past few years, historic processing and manufacturing jobs in Eastern Ontario have been evaporating like the maple sap of spring. TOM VAN DUSEN |
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 [ 2007-02-24 ] |
While there have often been losses in the sector, rarely have they come at such a rapid clip and touched so many parts of the region.
Consolidations, antiquated plants, cut-throat competition and loss of markets, cut-rate off-shore labour, a shortage of skilled workers here, the higher-valued Canadian dollar -- all have been blamed.
Cornwall, Chesterville, Pembroke, Prescott, Gananoque -- they've all experienced it. Smiths Falls and Arnprior are anticipating the crunch.
All told, at least 3,000 jobs have been lost or are threatened since 2003. Replacement positions are rare and what do come in, usually in the service sector, pay a lower wage.
The aftermath of a plant shutdown can be devastating.
HIT BY DEPRESSION
Communities which lose their main employer tend to become depressed and not just economically.
In many cases, factories over many years have become cultural and social forces, sources of identity and cohesion for many smaller centres.
Their presence is a source of pride and bragging rights: Smiths Falls, home of Hershey Canada; Cardinal, home of Casco Inc. The company and the town often become synonymous.
But with the spate of recent closures, the term "factory town" is almost becoming obsolete.
While some communities can still take comfort in the presence of large corporations which have sustained them for up to a century or more, many believe the days are numbered for what could be Eastern Ontario's last old-time factories still standing.
Ingleside and Winchester still have milk processors Kraft Foods and Parmalat Canada anchoring their commercial cores. And Casco, which transforms corn into multi-purpose starch, remains the healthy economic touchstone for Cardinal and surrounding area, providing more than 200 direct jobs.
Other communities haven't been so lucky. And luck has something to do with it.
Last year, Nestle Canada pulled out of Chesterville after more than 80 years, scrubbing 300 jobs. It was a sad day when they painted over the Home of Nestle sign on the village water tower, a job paid for by the company.
The cavernous Nestle plant, along the CN main line, has been sold to a company that plans to subdivide it, hopefully for use by several smaller commercial tenants.
The venerable Prescott Shirt Factory departed that town, shelving its last 50 jobs which had shrunk from a high of 200 jobs. The empty factory building is for sale with no takers so far. For the time being, the popular, tourist-drawing factory outlet store specializing in Hathaway shirts is still open.
By the end of March, Prescott's Siegwerk ink plant will close, capping 40 more jobs, with no replacement positions on the horizon, said municipal CAO Robert Haller.
Domtar Inc., Cornwall's last old-time St. Lawrence waterfront industry, ceased operations, removing a total of close to 1,000 well-paying jobs from the area employment mix.
The sulphuric smell of success, Cornwall's trademark, is gone forever. If it ever gains environmental clearance, Domtar's sprawling St. Lawrence waterfront property alongside the bridge to the U.S. will probably be turned over to condos and trendy retail uses.
And there's been more -- much more -- negative industrial sector employment news during the past two years.
In Long Sault, along the St. Lawrence Seaway west of Cornwall, 168 jobs dried up when Gilden Activewear folded. On the plus side, said area MP Guy Lauzon, 60 jobs have been created by a bakery distribution centre located in the former Gilden building.
MPP for Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, Lauzon has organized citizen action committees to investigate alternative forms of employment, including promoting the riding as a destination for seniors.
Also in Lauzon's riding, Iroquois' St. Lawrence Industries threw in the towel, terminating about 100 employees. The plant has been purchased by a Cornwall company now in the process of retrofitting it for future use.
"It's unlikely we'll see the days return when companies came to town with 600-800 jobs," Lauzon said.
"The future is in diversification and smaller job providers."
Shellee Evans agrees. Handling economic development files as director of community services in Perth, Evans says Canada can no longer compete with lower cost off-shore locations for industrial jobs.
Perth lost 67 jobs last year when Global Fasteners disconnected; the town had barely recovered from the loss of about 300 jobs when Brown Shoes hit the road in 2003.
In Pembroke, 235 jobs have been lost recently with another 35 threatened. That has the same impact in Ontario's smallest official city as GM shutting down would have in Oshawa, says mayor Ed Jacyno.
In Gananoque, automotive parts manufacturer Collins and Aikman officially closes this Wednesday, putting 126 people on the street. That's on top of 85 jobs lost more than a year ago when Germany-based Mahle Engine Components left town.
Mayor Jim Garrah calls his town in the Thousand Islands a "victim of the world economy."
After Mahle shut down, an employment action centre was established to deal with the displaced workers. Another will spring into action to help handle the Collins and Aikman fallout, said town economic development co-ordinator Kent Fitzhugh.
Under the circumstances, the Mahle dust settled reasonably well, Fitzhugh said. Of the 85 laid off, 47 are once again earning hourly wages in the area, 15 are in training, five retired, and 10 went on to form their own businesses, with only eight "not adjusted."
LAYOFFS ANTICIPATED
More layoffs have been announced or are anticipated in the east end of the province, most notably the departure of Hershey Canada from Smiths Falls which will rob the traditional transportation hub of its self-designated title of Chocolate Capital of Ontario.
Also trying to hang on to threatened jobs is Arnprior, where about six months ago Pfizer pharmaceuticals said it would close if it didn't sell its plant within two years. If closure comes to pass there, 250 people will be out of work.
Scrambling with others to help find a buyer, Mayor Terry Gibeau is keeping his fingers crossed the outcome will be similar to what happened during the past two years when Boeing sold to Arnprior Aerospace and Honeywell carpet fibres sold to Nylene, preserving most of the jobs involved.
'BUSINESS IS BUSINESS'
"In the end, business is business and that's what dictates the outcome," Gibeau said.
Established more than 45 years ago, Hershey has clearly become much more than a job supplier, making its departure all the more traumatic. It's a cultural presence and a major tourist attraction.
Factory owners often fund sports teams, provide cash for parks and other community improvements, and sometimes allow public use of meeting rooms.
And, ironically, while once seen as environmental sinners, some factories have been slowly transforming into environmental champions.
In Winchester, Parmalat, an important component in the annual Dairyfest, sinks hard cash into cleaning up the South Nation River, while Nestle contributed to maintenance of the water reservoir dam on the same river.
Unfortunately, it didn't help stem the tide of industrial jobs flowing from the region never to return.
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