Economy Thread

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Ryeguy01

I don’t see it getting much better. Parents need to also encourage their kids to join the trades and not just going to university. At least there is always job security in the trades and good wage plus benefits and pension

I've posted about this already in one of these threads, but the contractors need to loosen up a bit as well. My son went to Fanshawe for a year hoping to get into an electrical apprenticeship and can't get in anywhere. Same old song and dance, not enough experience. They all bitch they can't get staff, but they all want 2nd or 3rd year apprentices, first year need not apply

[Ryeguy01]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

I've posted about this already in one of these threads, but the contractors need to loosen up a bit as well. My son went to Fanshawe for a year hoping to get into an electrical apprenticeship and can't get in anywhere. Same old song and dance, not enough experience. They all bitch they can't get staff, but they all want 2nd or 3rd year apprentices, first year need not apply

I understand that some trades need to do more, but I know a lot of companies part of the union that are always looking for people with little to none experience. Even our iron work company has kids at 19 working for us with no experience. There are companies out there that are looking for anyone.

[ssiguy]

A lack of skilled trades has 2 main problems:

1} Canada's business community are notoriously bad for training it's current workers or new ones.
2} Most importantly, Canada has created a social environment that greatly reduces the value of it's community colleges. Colleges are for "poor people", those with no ambition, or those that don't have the grey matter to make it in university. This is why nearly 20% of full time students at community colleges in Canada already have a university degree. They know that having a greatly skilled diploma from a college is worth nothing unless you have you 2 letters you can put behind your name.

All one has to do is look at London. London has a very prestigious university that gets all the attention but London also has one of the largest and best colleges in the country but you would never know it. The main London Fanshawe campus is home to a huge 21,000 Full-time students making it bigger than Laurier, Dalhousie, Victoria, Saskatchewan, Windsor, or Memorial but yet it still gets no respect.

Small wonder Canada has such a lack of skilled labour.

[jammer139]

London rents soaring. Economics 101 with the Law of Supply and Demand.
Can and will developers build enough apartments to meet the demand?



https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...r-workers-prof

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

A lack of skilled trades has 2 main problems:

1} Canada's business community are notoriously bad for training it's current workers or new ones.
2} Most importantly, Canada has created a social environment that greatly reduces the value of it's community colleges. Colleges are for "poor people", those with no ambition, or those that don't have the grey matter to make it in university. This is why nearly 20% of full time students at community colleges in Canada already have a university degree. They know that having a greatly skilled diploma from a college is worth nothing unless you have you 2 letters you can put behind your name.

All one has to do is look at London. London has a very prestigious university that gets all the attention but London also has one of the largest and best colleges in the country but you would never know it. The main London Fanshawe campus is home to a huge 21,000 Full-time students making it bigger than Laurier, Dalhousie, Victoria, Saskatchewan, Windsor, or Memorial but yet it still gets no respect.

Small wonder Canada has such a lack of skilled labour.

Maybe. I don't know. All I know is that Fanshawe College has been growing like crazy. They build a large campus downtown, and have expanded their main campus out in the Eastern part of London. I believe enrolment has doubled since I moved to London in 2005. Western was slumbering for the first 8 years of my career but has since woken up, with plans to have 50K full time students in the next 6-8 years.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

A lack of skilled trades has 2 main problems:

1} Canada's business community are notoriously bad for training it's current workers or new ones.
2} Most importantly, Canada has created a social environment that greatly reduces the value of it's community colleges. Colleges are for "poor people", those with no ambition, or those that don't have the grey matter to make it in university. This is why nearly 20% of full time students at community colleges in Canada already have a university degree. They know that having a greatly skilled diploma from a college is worth nothing unless you have you 2 letters you can put behind your name.

All one has to do is look at London. London has a very prestigious university that gets all the attention but London also has one of the largest and best colleges in the country but you would never know it. The main London Fanshawe campus is home to a huge 21,000 Full-time students making it bigger than Laurier, Dalhousie, Victoria, Saskatchewan, Windsor, or Memorial but yet it still gets no respect.

Small wonder Canada has such a lack of skilled labour.

First, I'm not even sure what Fanshawe gets no respect even means. Respect from whom?

As for the bolded part above, I think you have it backwards. People don't feel they need a university degree for their college diploma to mean anything. I think it's more a case of some people realize after the fact that university wasn't for them, they didn't know what to take, didn't know what they wanted to do with their lives yet, or couldn't get a job in the field they studied, so they go to college and try something else. Or maybe have a realization after a few years in whatever field that it just doesn't suit them. Maybe it doesn't pay as well as they hoped, or it involves relocating where they don't want to go. Or maybe they just start noticing other opportunities, but it takes some time at college to learn them. If 20% of college grads are already uni grads, what percentage of uni grads make up that 20%?

I think it's long since passed that people look at college as the place that those not smart enough for uni go.

[jammer139]

LFP article on population growth in the downtown.


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...ion-boom-looms

[MolsonExport]

A city's worth is partly defined by a city's downtown. My biggest problem with London is the fact that our downtown is really subpar for a city of this size (parking lots, few interesting shops/restaurants, but tons of homeless/junkies). It is comforting to think that this problem may eventually work itself out with the downtown "population boom".

[ssiguy]

A downtown population boom brings so many benefits. From repurposing of old and underused buildings, new businesses, more pedestrian traffic, greater entertainment options, and a more appealing draw for those who don't live downtown and tourists and it builds on itself as a crowd attracts a crowd.

There is also, however, another big benefit that people overlook and politicians will NEVER mention............more political power. The people moving to the urban cores today are overwhelmingly more highly educated, more politically engaged, and of higher incomes. With this comes more money flowing to these areas not only for other Londoners but also from city coffers.......E of A residence doesn't get near the attention or money from City Hall that Old North, Wortley, or the Hunt Club enjoy because they are rude.

From more money for festivals, urban beautification, more police presence, to livelier public spaces...............money talks and the politicians follow the money and set their priorities accordingly.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

A city's worth is partly defined by a city's downtown. My biggest problem with London is the fact that our downtown is really subpar for a city of this size (parking lots, few interesting shops/restaurants, but tons of homeless/junkies). It is comforting to think that this problem may eventually work itself out with the downtown "population boom".

I wonder how the west end of downtown would look today if the loud voices of those who wanted the new arena built out behind the old one over 20 years ago had been listened to.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

A city's worth is partly defined by a city's downtown. My biggest problem with London is the fact that our downtown is really subpar for a city of this size (parking lots, few interesting shops/restaurants, but tons of homeless/junkies). It is comforting to think that this problem may eventually work itself out with the downtown "population boom".

I spent the day in Downtown London yesterday for work, and it was the first time I'd spent any time there since 2019. I'm glad to see that the old D&R Starbucks has a new tenant (a bagel shop), but I could not believe how much downtown has declined since the start of the pandemic. I'd seen homeless there before but the homeless population has grown significantly, and I also saw open drug use. The high number of boarded up buildings is also quite unsettling. Dundas between Richmond and Clarence basically looks abandoned now.

I thought Columbia Street in New Westminster was in bad shape, but Dundas has turned into another level of hell. It hasn't reached the level of Vancouver's Downtown East Side yet - far from it - but it looks to be moving in that direction. Hopefully all the new residential development helps.

[MolsonExport]

^as a former resident of Vancouver, I know the DTES and Columbia Street well. Yes, London's downtown has slipped a great deal since the pandemic, whereas it was just starting to get back on track after the disastrous Great Recession of 2007-2009 (which lasted well until the mid 2010s for London: few Canadian cities were as devastated by that recession as London was).

Something has to be done about the preponderance of homeless and junkies downtown. Many people I know refuse to walk downtown on account of the sheer number of homeless/junkies and the high chance of some kind of altercation (E.g., on several occasions, I had junkies lunge towards my children). I see this as the single biggest problem facing London. This is not to say that I don't have sympathy for these people; many of whom must have faced many horrors to reach their current state.

[jammer139]

Latest vacancy rate updates for London.


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...ies-shed-space

[jammer139]

Nooners considers moving out of downtown or closing all together. Surprised they have held out this long given the exodus of office workers to work from home and the social ills in the core.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/londo...town-1.6711852

[jammer139]

CAMI is adding a 400,000 sq ft addition to assemble batteries for their new Brightdrop EVs. EllisDon has landed the general contractor contract.



https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...t-cami-sources

[Djeffery]

Was wondering what was going on there. Thought maybe it was a new parking lot, given the location on the property that they are working. Interesting the article mentions the site plan mentioned the cross-dock, because that is where this work is happening, right beside the cross-dock. Maybe this will be an expansion of that building, which is separate from the plant itself. It's about 160,000 itself and surrounded by acres of space. I would guess that the Brightdrop is a "simpler" vehicle than the passenger vehicles built there before and the warehousing needs in that building might not be the same now, so they can utilize part of it and the addition for manufacturing.

[jammer139]

In a rare move the Landlord has actually sold a property.



The Thrift Store retail building at 1960 Dundas Street sold for $3,950,000


1960 Dundas Street
type Retail building
price $3,950,000
seller Farhi Holdings Corp.
buyer JYSK Linen ‘n Furniture Inc.

[Djeffery]

Interesting that JYSK would look to open in that spot after closing their Masonville area store last fall. I can't recall if there is an empty store across the road, but that seems more like where I would picture them going. Not a ton of parking at the Thrift Store

[inimrepus]

I think there is enough parking for a store like JYSK. I'm more surprised that they would buy a store like this because I think it will either require massive renovations or a rebuild.

[Djeffery]

Assuming Farhi maintained the outside the building well, it shouldn't need much more than the usual reno that a new retailer would do. It is a pretty old building as it was a TSC store in it's prior life but I wouldn't say it's any older than the former Canadian Tire that their recently closed store was before. It still strikes me as small for JYSK, both in parking (I count about 60 spots) and in store size, but maybe smaller is what they are going for. One plus is they like to have customer pickup zones at the sides or back of a store for people to get their larger items, and this store has a nice canopied area on the east side for that purpose.