Harden and Walmart Canada investing to build 457,000 square foot fulfillment centre at Le Campus Henry Ford in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec | Canada News Media
Vaudreuil, September 20, 2022 – Harden and Walmart Canada announced today their plans to build Walmart’s Quebec fulfillment centre, located in Vaudreuil-Dorion. The ±457,000 square foot building is part of Harden’s new industrial park, Le Campus Henry Ford, with Walmart Canada as its first tenant. The new facility, currently slated to open in 2024, will offer better product availability and quicker service for Walmart’s customers.
“We’re extremely excited to be working with Walmart on this project” said Tyler and Chris Harden, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Harden. “This fulfillment centre is a testament to the commitment and belief Walmart Canada has to the market of Vaudreuil-Dorion and to the province of Quebec. We are thrilled to see this market flourish as a logistic hub and continue to be rooted by our values of continued growth in the communities we work in.”
“This important investment is the latest example of Walmart’s commitment to Quebec,” said Cyrille Ballereau, Walmart Canada Regional Vice President for Quebec. “We are investing for growth in Quebec and creating jobs for Quebecers to better serve our customers. Quebecers will see refreshed stores, quicker service and more options available in-store and online. When Quebecers choose Walmart, they are choosing to support a retailer that supports Quebecers.”
Quebec fulfillment centre
· The Quebec fulfillment centre, to be located in Vaudreuil-Dorion, will be approximately 457,000 square feet in size, serving as a delivery hub for millions of customer orders in Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
· The facility will be powered by cutting-edge logistics technology to achieve productivity with less physical effort by using innovative technology.
· This platform will speed up order fulfillment through an advanced operating system that will help associates store, pick and sort items by using smart and flexible storage abilities to manage a large and wide variety of inventory.
· Capable of shipping 20 million items annually from the facility to local customers.
· Capable of storing 500,000 items to fulfil direct to home and in-store pickup orders.
· Designed to optimize packaging, minimize waste and reduce transportation costs.
· Creating approximately 225 new jobs in Quebec, plus construction and engineering jobs.
“We know these are challenging times for our customers. That’s why we are proud to be making significant investments in Canada to deliver the very best shopping experience,” said JP Suarez, Executive Vice President, Chief Administration Office and Regional CEO for Walmart International, who is also leading Walmart Canada on an interim basis. “We are building a better Walmart Canada to help more Canadians save money and live better. As the cost of living rises, Canadians can trust Walmart to be that convenient, one-stop shop for everyday low prices.”
Walmart Canada is the first tenant at Le Campus Henry Ford, located in Harden’s new industrial park in Vaudreuil-Dorion, which is easily accessible by Highways 20, 30 and 40 and strategically located to cater to the Quebec and Atlantic markets, in addition to the northeastern United States.
Le Campus Henry Ford features five additional buildings to be constructed and available rental spaces totalling approximately 500,000 square feet for prestige and logistic uses, with a specific focus on fulfillment and distribution centres.
For more details regarding Le Campus Henry Ford, ongoing Harden projects or the brand, please visit https://www.harden.ca/.
Harden
Established in 1985, Harden is a second-generation family-owned real-estate company whose primary objective is to own and operate commercial, residential, and industrial properties in numerous communities throughout the provinces of Québec and Ontario. Its vertical integration allows it to specialize in all facets of the real-estate development process, including development, construction, leasing, and property management.
For more information on Harden, visit www.harden.ca.
About Walmart Canada
Walmart Canada operates a chain of more than 400 stores nationwide serving 1.5 million customers each day. Walmart Canada’s flagship online store, Walmart.ca, is visited by more than 1.5 million customers daily. With more than 100,000 associates, Walmart Canada is one of Canada’s largest employers and is ranked one of the country’s top 10 most influential brands. Walmart Canada was recently recognized as a LinkedIn Top Company of 2022 and was also named one of Canada’s most popular brands (based on Google searches). Walmart Canada has made a commitment to regeneration – focusing on equitable opportunity, sustainability, community, ethics and integrity. Since 1994, Walmart Canada has raised over $500 million to support communities across Canada. Additional information can be found at walmartcanada.ca and on Walmart Canada’s social media pages – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
