General Electric Brings New Jobs to Welland

You know something big is happening in Welland when the Tribune prints its headline in capital letters.

General Electric has recently announced that they are opening a factory in Welland. Known as the "Brilliant Factory," it will produce engines and their components, as well as other equipment. It will sit on the 75-acre Harry Diffin Industrial Park, located on the west side of Highway 140. GE says that the factory will create 150 new jobs initially, and potentially many more to come. Hiring will begin later this year.

The new GE factory will be located on this 75-acre site.

Mayor Frank Campion is calling this 'the biggest news we've had in Welland for a long, long time,' and it's easy to see why. Factories and other employers going out of business seems to be daily news around here - much like stabbings in Toronto or scandals in Ottawa, we hear about them so often that each one is just a blip on the radar. (For proof, look at the "Highlights of Welland's Industrial Timeline" in today's Tribune, which includes 7 factories that closed and 2 that opened.) We've lost Union Carbide, Atlas Steels, John Deere, MMFX, Henninges Automotive, Energex Tube, and Powerblades all within the last 17 years.

But soon we'll have GE, and we known they'll be here to stay. Millions of dollars worth of incentives, Welland's skilled workforce, and a strategic location will keep them here. It's for these reasons that Welland was selected out of 10 municipalities that were initially considered. 

General Electric says this engine will be among the models built at the Welland facility.

Many people were responsible for helping to bring GE to Welland. Mayor Campion says most of the hard work was done right here at City Hall. It was Justin Trudeau who convinced GE to come to Canada 8 months ago, but without the efforts of our municipal government, Welland might not have stood out among the other cities available. Other names, like Chrystia Freeland (Minister of International Trade) and Alan Caslin (Regional Chair) have also been credited for their share of the effort. Niagara Centre MP Vance Badawey and Welland MPP Cindy Forster both congratulated our city on the achievement. Forster acknowledged that Welland has been “hard hit for many, many years” and seemed hopeful that this might be a chance to change that fact.

So what exactly does all of this mean for Welland?

Well, 150 jobs might not seem like much for a city of 50,000 people, but it bears repeating that those are just the jobs that will be created during the initial phase of the factory's operation. The GE factory in Waukesha, Wisconsin, which ours will be replacing, has 350 workers - and since the Welland plant will be even more high-tech and modern, it could employ even more people. And that doesn't include other jobs created along the supply chain, selling equipment and offering services to the new plant. The benefits will spread all throughout our city, and many Wellanders could soon find themselves employed by a world-class manufacturer.

Mayor Campion is hopeful that once GE is settled in, other companies will notice and follow suit. "We should all be proud of this achievement and recognition on the world stage and look forward positively to what the future will bring," writes the Mayor. "In years to come I believe we will be able to look back and say GE’s arrival in Welland was a positive turning point in Welland’s economic prosperity." 

Could this really be the beginning of Welland's industrial renaissance? Only time will tell...