General Business Updates and News

[westwardloo]

Yeah this is an interesting investment. Could lead to the Region becoming a hub for Nuclear Energy Research and Technologies. I am disappointed in the location, but it seems like people in K-W love suburban office space over downtown office for some reason.

[panamaniac]

Yeah this is an interesting investment. Could lead to the Region becoming a hub for Nuclear Energy Research and Technologies. I am disappointed in the location, but it seems like people in K-W love suburban office space over downtown office for some reason.

I had the same reaction about the location, especially with so much empty office space downtown.

[bravado]

Keep in mind that Cambridge has a surprisingly large nuclear manufacturing industry with BWXT (the only large nuclear manufacturing plant in NA) announcing expansion plans and Aecon + IST + Veriform + Eclipse automation continuing their own nuclear services. It’s a weird, specific, high end industry that’s growing…

My evening dog walk route was interrupted one night because the convoy for a new containment vessel had to move all the traffic lights on Dundas out of the way.

[Acitta]

I'm surprised nobody has posted re the new Westinghouse global engineering hub that officially opened in Kitchener yesterday.  150 new engineering jobs seems like a pretty big deal.

Maybe nobody noticed because they moved into an existing building rather than building a new one.

[ac3r]

Keep in mind that Cambridge has a surprisingly large nuclear manufacturing industry with BWXT (the only large nuclear manufacturing plant in NA) announcing expansion plans and Aecon + IST + Veriform + Eclipse automation continuing their own nuclear services. It’s a weird, specific, high end industry that’s growing…

My evening dog walk route was interrupted one night because the convoy for a new containment vessel had to move all the traffic lights on Dundas out of the way.

A cool thing about that company is that they have a super old diesel switcher locomotive that's been in operation for probably half a century which they use to shunt cars around. I told a friend of mine from England about it some time ago and she took a lot of nice photographs of it as she is very interested in North American trains.

[bravado]

I wish they’d invest in the property itself to become a bit nicer in the neighbourhood context, but it’s a super old site that’s been making steam boilers for warships forever and now makes big nuke stuff. Very crazy.

[panamaniac]

I'm surprised nobody has posted re the new Westinghouse global engineering hub that officially opened in Kitchener yesterday.  150 new engineering jobs seems like a pretty big deal.

Maybe nobody noticed because they moved into an existing building rather than building a new one.

Or because the story appeared in the Record.

[ac3r]

A new study looking at earnings for University of Waterloo graduates found international students make more money on average after graduation than Canadian-born students: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...f3643.html

Well that headline is going to get a lot of people upset...heh.

[panamaniac]

A new study looking at earnings for University of Waterloo graduates found international students make more money on average after graduation than Canadian-born students: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...f3643.html

Well that headline is going to get a lot of people upset...heh.

Probably, but such folks are inclined to consistently miss the point.  Despite it's shortcomings the study could make a good contribution to immigration policy.

[creative]

From the article.

“This is largely explained by a concentration of international students in high earning fields, typically in the STEM fields.”

[panamaniac]

From the article.

“This is largely explained by a concentration of international students in high earning fields, typically in the STEM fields.”

Unfortunatley, they did not compare the earnings of Canadians and international students who went into the same high earning fields.

[nms]

From slightly further down in the same article, a contradiction of the headline:

“Comparing UWaterloo students graduating from the same programs, we find no evidence of foreign student earnings gaps at the top end of the skill distribution, but gaps exist at the lower end, and these gaps appear to be entirely explained by differences in English language proficiency. Overall, we find no evidence of underutilization of the skills of UWaterloo’s international student graduates in Canadian labour markets.”

The data sample is comprised of all Waterloo bachelor’s degree graduates between 2005 and 2021, with a total sample of 86,250 graduates.

[Acitta]

Business coalition releases report card on Region of Waterloo’s growth readiness

The Business and Economic Support Team of Waterloo Region, also known as BestWR, has put together a new scorecard meant to track the community’s readiness to reach one million residents by 2050.

“What are the building blocks that we need to have in place to be a successful community of a million people, and a community worth living in?” asked BestWR Chair Ian McLean. “We’ve identified some issues that need to be addressed. Let’s get to work on them. I don’t think there’s anything that this community cannot accomplish if we put our minds to it, and are focused, and people know part of the puzzle that they need to put in place.”

BestWR is chaired by the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce and includes organizations such as Communitech, the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, Explore Waterloo Region, and the Waterloo Region Economic Development Corporation. It plans to put out an updated report card every six months, adding that it’s not about assigning blame but about finding a way to achieve a common goal.

The report focused on five main areas: housing, transportation, healthcare, employment/jobs and placemaking/livability.

[nms]

It will be interesting to see the more detailed work and information about what "In Progress" actually means. The high level 8-page slide deck glossed over some of the more critical areas of need by simply labeling them "In Progress" which gives a false sense of security that meaningful work is being done (or even possible) that might mean these targets will be met by 2050. Among the most critical ones is the lack of water supply to support more than about 750,000 residents. The report also ignores landfill capacity completely. "New Highway 7" gets rated as "In Progress" since there is a "Verbal commitment made."

But at least the best and the brightest are doing their best. I wish them luck and look forward to progress.

[Acitta]

It will be interesting to see the more detailed work and information about what "In Progress" actually means.  The high level 8-page slide deck glossed over some of the more critical areas of need by simply labeling them "In Progress" which gives a false sense of security that meaningful work is being done (or even possible) that might mean these targets will be met by 2050.  Among the most critical ones is the lack of water supply to support more than about 750,000 residents.  The report also ignores landfill capacity completely.  "New Highway 7" gets rated as "In Progress" since there is a "Verbal commitment made."

But at least the best and the brightest are doing their best.  I wish them luck and look forward to progress.

Since they seem to be doing a report every 6 months, I sure that there will be regular revisions as they receive feedback.