In the not-too-distant future, Amazon delivery trucks will be leaving from a newer and much bigger facility in Dartmouth, N.S. “It is about the size of three of the current Ikea’s, so, it’s a massive, massive footprint,” says Don Bureaux, president and CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. Amazon is moving its distribution facility from one end of the Burnside Industrial Park to the other. Right now, the site is being cleared by dozens of pieces of heavy equipment. The building will be about 1.2-million square feet and consumers could see the benefits of shorter delivery times that come with a larger warehouse. “We could be talking about same-day delivery here in the city,” says Bureaux. Tim Rissesco, CEO of the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission, says the municipality is on a roll when it comes to attracting major investments like this one. “It’s like a snowball. Once that snowball starts rolling, it kind of just keeps rolling and so we’re attracting these large sorts of employers like Amazon and we’re also attracting a lot of investment through the defence initiative,” Rissesco says. The news isn’t all positive according to retail expert Doug Stephens. “The reputation of Amazon as an employer, not the best,” he says. Stephens says the distribution super-company has its flaws, even if it is bringing between 1,000 and 1,500 jobs to the area. “This facility, first of all, is opening against the backdrop of a closing of a facility in Quebec not that long ago and the catalyst for that closing was that the employees were unionized in Quebec and Amazon wants nothing to do with unions,” he says. “One could argue that if that was a union facility that was paying union scale that those people would have a lot more job security and they would be paid better wages that they would be recirculating into the community.” Stephens says there’s a fine line been the quantity and quality of jobs. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
