How the area is recovering from the downturn

January 04, 2010

Posted By By Jeff Helsdon

Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part series

A little more than a year ago, the world was plunged into a recession that affected every country on the planet.

In the second part of a series examining how the country, is faring a year later, we taken an in-depth look at our area.

The national picture

As Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, Haldimand-Norfolk MP Diane Finley is one of the key players in the national strategy to deal with the recession.

"We are seeing some early signs of a tentative recovery, but it's very fragile yet so we have to focus on the economy," she said.

Internationally, Finley said Canada is viewed as one of the better-off countries. Canada went into the recession later, wasn't in as deep and is expected to come out sooner.

"Although we had to go into deficit, we aren't as deep as many countries and we have a plan to get out," she said.

In fact, Euromoney magazine named Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty as the finance minister of the year. World Economic Forum rated Canada as the best off of the G8 nations in the battle against the global economic crisis.

Finley did acknowledge there are significant regional differences across Canada. Ontario saw the largest number of job losses, but the last two months have seen net new jobs created.

"And that's encouraging especially when it's in manufacturing," she said.

Finley said the government is working hard to stimulate the economy, create jobs and get people back to work while keeping taxes low to make Canada a good place to invest. She also said assistance is being provided to assist companies in developing overseas markets, particularly in agriculture.


Oxford

Oxford MP Dave MacKenzie believes the stimulus package has helped the county.

"It's been beneficial from the point of view of construction," he said. "Not only has it helped by creating work right now, it will help the municipalities in the future.

If you look at the (Tillsonburg) airport, not only do you have the construction, but the town's long-term objective is to make it into an industrial area."

In the case of the airport, the federal Community Adjustment Fund provided $2.1 million for airport upgrades, such as runway paving, a runway extension, a new terminal building and a feasibility study looking at the possibility of creating new development at the airport. MacKenzie also pointed to joint stimulus funding that provided money to the Glendale High School gymnasium expansion. In that case, local contractor Reid and DeLeye received the job.

The Oxford MP said the riding is a good indicator of the bigger picture and pointed to increased work at CAMI and Toyota as a sign that things could be improving.

"Make no mistake, it's fragile," he said. "We are a consuming nation, but also an exporting nation. We need Americans to start consuming.

Speaking to lost factories, MacKenzie believes that part of the changes are evolutionary. Over the last 40 years living in Woodstock, he's seen companies such as Thomas Bus, Massey and Fisher Controls leave.

"These are coming and going all the time, it's not just during a recession," he said.

Oxford MPP Ernie Hardeman was a little more cautious.

"Overall, Oxford is faring as good, if not better, than a lot of areas," he said. "I think there is a grave concern as we see the recovery start to take hold, but when we get job numbers for Ontario, we lost 32,000 more jobs."

With CAMI back in full production and Toyota starting up near the beginning of the recession, it helped the county. But, he pointed out the national unemployment rate is 8.6%, with Ontario's higher at 9.3%.

"That extra percentage is a lot of people," he said. "They're more than just statistics. Every one is a someone who has lost a job."

Hardeman says he hears concerns from a lot of people who have lost their jobs in the last year and want to retrain, but find the retraining programs have run out of money.

The Oxford MPP is also concerned the HST will stifle any small growth that is coming if spending is slowed down.

"That will curtail spending and you can't curtail spending or your recovery slows down," he said.


Norfolk
The biggest hit in Norfolk County has been the closure of US Steel.

"It's pretty grim, but I guess the people we are talking to are at the end of their rope," said MPP Toby Barrett. "Everyday we talk to people who have lost their jobs."

Finley also said US Steel has had a huge effect on the riding.

"I've talked to some businesses that reported their business was down as much as 20%," she said.

Barrett said the area has one of the highest unemployment rates in Canada.

He also talks to a lot of farmers who are in dire straits. He said the hog industry is at a point people want to quit and the cattle industry never quite recovered from the BSE crisis. Some horticultural farmers are having a tough go and the tobacco industry recently went through upheaval.

Barrett believes infrastructure money has helped the riding.

"I've not seen any evaluations of that kind of spending from the provincial or federal governments," he said. "It creates those type of short-term jobs, but in my view, it's a short-term approach.

"We know provincially, jobs that are being created are government jobs, again with our taxes," Barrett said.

On the plus side, Finley said she knows of businesses that were expecting to lay off that now have employees working overtime due to the home renovation tax credit. She also pointed out Job Sharing has protected 400 jobs at 18 companies in the riding and there has been more than $30 million put in the riding through stimulus funding.

Barrett doesn't believe programs such as Second Career and the Self Employment Benefit Plan are working as well as they should.

"Some of them are on hold, they're being reviewed by the government," he said. "This is when we need these programs to be running. This is not the time to review of them."

With the downturn in tobacco, Finley said in some ways the riding entered the economic downturn earlier. The federal government provided the Tobacco Adjustment Fund, Sand Plains Development Fund and an economic development agency for southern Ontario to help diversify the economy.


Elgin-Middlesex-London

The loss of 1,300 jobs at the Sterling Truck Plant in St. Thomas was a huge hit to the region.

"In Elgin County, we are still a long ways from recovering," said Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Steve Peters. "We are still feeling the impacts of the closure. St. Thomas has lost an unexpected number of plants. That continues with the announcement by Ford to close the Talbotville plant in 2011."

Peters was mayor of St. Thomas during the recession of the 1990s and said this is "far, far worse".

"It's a heavy industrial riding and industry is the last thing to recover," said Elgin-Middlesex-London MP Joe Preston. "We're pushing to fill in jobs in other industries, but to fill in what was once automotive is a tough job."

He pointed to money invested in the area through stimulus funding for research and municipal infrastructure as a start. Preston admitted the latter was a short-term, but still created work and hard assets for the municipality.

Regarding the research money, Preston said it helps create capacity in colleges and universities. He also pointed out many people will be retrained and in new jobs.

The Sand Plains Development Fund, which Preston played a part in getting of the ground, will create more "hard jobs", not short-term construction jobs.

"It's helping us moved forward, helping people convert from one economy to another," he said.
Funding to Community Futures organization has also been boosted to assist people starting businesses.

"We don't throw people to the wolves and say 'Start your own business', we have to teach them," Preston said.

Locally, federal infrastructure funding and provincial economic development funding assisted the Municipality of Bayham launch a feasibility study to look at the possibility of establishing a ferry service in Port Burwell.

"They would have never been able to look at whether there is the ability to put a ferry there in the future," he said. "If we win in the future, it's money well spent. If we don't waste money (on something the report finds isn't feasible), that's also money well spent."

Asked whether he feels things are getting better in the riding, Preston said it was flat.

"I haven't seen it get much worse in the last couple months, but I haven't seen it get better," he said. "I'm having more meetings with people who want to start businesses. I can't point to something that says we're better off than we were on March 1 or June 1.

"We've got some jobs to replace and I won't stop until I've done it. These are my friends and neighbours. They are the people who have supported me in my businesses or elections."

Peters said the Second Career program is working, but it's important to ensure there are adequate resources in it.

"It is working, but because of the unprecedented times we are in adequate resources need to be invested in the program," he said.
The province has announced there will be another $78 million more put in the program.

"A lot of that isn't going to kick in until the new year," he said. "I don't think anyone envisioned this kind of uptake for Second Career."

Peters believes all three levels of government need to work together to solve the program and develop a strategy to attract new industry.

Two areas he sees potential in are green energy and food processing. He cited the recent work on a baby carrot plant near Thorndale as an example.

"One of the things we've lost in this country is further processing in the food industry," he said.

Elgin-Middlesex-London is the only area riding with government members elected at both the provincial and federal levels. Although Preston and Peters are of different political stripes, they have worked together in the past.

"From a year ago to today, it has been the most cooperative year between Steve Peters office and mine and municipalities," Preston said.

The big casualties
DDM
TDS
Sterling Truck (St. Thomas)
US Steel (Haldimand)
New businesses in the last year
Tillsonburg Custom Foods
All About You
Pawz N'Clawz
The Chocolate Tree
Frank's Cookies and Candies
Styles on Broadway
All Ways Natural Health Care Centre
Sanford and Wife
Q Mart
Mill Tales Inn
Pho Van
The Nuisance Trapper
AD Autoglass
The Way of Life Martial Arts
Serene Salon and Spa
Brian's Water Softener
Paul's Shoes
Oxford Plumbing
Findley's Driver Training Centre
Ardene
Martinrea
Sear's Travel