THUNDER BAY – With more layoffs announced at the Thunder Bay Bombardier plant, chief operating officer for Bombardier Transportation in the Americas, David Van der Wee, said decisions about securing more work in the future need to be made now.
“We are at the point right now at the end of 2021, there is simply nothing left in the pipeline,” he said.
“We have a problem. It’s today’s problem. It’s not tomorrow’s problem. It’s not something for the end of 2021. This is a manufacturing system and in that kind of system, the decision you make today will only have an impact a year from now.”
Van der Wee was in Thunder Bay on Wednesday to inform the workers at the local plant that 125 people will be laid off starting in mid-October as work slows down on 36 bi-level cars and the manufacturing of components for ventilators winds down in the next two months.
An additional 75 workers will be laid off in early 2021 as work concludes on roof assemblies for Eglinton Crosstown LVRs and retrofitting vehicles with additional communications equipment for Metrollinx.
“Today I had to give the very sad news that even though we’ve been working very hard to reinforce the pipeline by winning new contracts, by moving work from other plants and bringing it in here, and doing retrofits and upgrades for Eglinton Crosstown, that pipeline is diminishing and diminishing rapidly,” Van der Wee said.
The 200 workers being laid off out of the approximately 470 current employees is another devastating blow to the local Bombardier plant, which saw 550 workers laid off last fall when two major contracts concluded at the end of 2019.
The future of the plant in Thunder Bay will rely on securing additional contracts for light rail vehicles to bridge the gap to larger orders from the Toronto Transit Commission.
Bombardier, union members, and municipal officials have been working with the provincial and federal governments to bring these contracts to the local plant.
“I’ve talked to various levels of government,” said Dominic Pasqualino, president of Unifor Local 1075. “Individually everyone seems to be online. They all understand it’s important for the city to get that. It’s important for Ontario jobs. It’s important to keep our skill set here. What we need to do is get them all in one room and work out the details.”
But Van der Wee recognizes that things have changed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and complicating matters for major transit systems like the TTC.
“Our customers, the transit agencies, TTC, Metrolinx, Go Transit, they are facing incredible challenges just on the operation side to retool, restructure, re-budget to be able to address the current crisis,” he said.
“This creates a lot of new priorities. But at the end of the day, manufacturing jobs, especially in the Thunder Bay region are critical for the province.”
Van der Wee said the TTC contract will serve as a bridge for the Thunder Bay Bombardier plant and help sustain operations until bigger projects as part of Premier Doug Ford’s transit plan come forward.
“It’s about creating a bridge, it’s about creating a viable operation, and it’s about putting ourselves in a position to compete and win for the next series of big contracts that are up coming,” Van der Wee said. “If we can do that, I have all the confidence in the world that this facility will be able to compete and able to win.”
Another variable complicating matters is the potential acquisition of Bombardier transportation by the Paris-based company, Alstom.
“The process is happening on schedule,” Van der Wee said. “I know for a certainty that the best position for this plant under a transfer to new ownership is to show a commitment pipeline of projects that are profitable, that bring value to our customers, and if we can do that we will be in a good position.”
Negotiations will continue to secure more contracts in the hopes of not only sustaining work at the local plant, but also securing its future down the road.
“The more people the better it will be for the economy,” Pasqualino said. “But also for getting more contracts. It’s a lot easier to go from 500 to 800 workers than to go from 50 to 350. It’s really important to have the base here.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
