London: The Mayor’s meeting to discuss jobs in London got off to bigger start this morning than expected as new job announcements from Peter White, the President of LEDC were combined with an announcement by representatives of ExpressPlus, a logistics and custom brokers business from Toronto, of their plans to locate in London and bring with them a projected 100 jobs. Total new job numbers came in at more than 300.
The announcements came as Mayor Fontana was joined by more than forty Londoners,
including MPs, Ed Holder and Susan Truppe (the latter participating via conference call),
Marian Meinen the Director of Regional Affairs Minister’s Regional Office represented the Honourable Gary Goodyear,
Minister Chris Bentley,
MPP Khalil Ramal,
Minister Deb Mathews,
Council members, Joe Swan, Paul Hubert, Matt Brown, Denise Brown, Stephen Orser, Harold Usher, Bud Polhill and representatives of local business and labour.
The discussion was focused on the current level of employment in the city and what actions by City and the community will get job creation moving.
The Mayor began the meeting by putting perspective to the job picture in London. He said, “This Council has a long term strategy for job creation – the investment and jobs for the future, and ExpressPlus’s announcement here today speaks to that, but what we need today is a strategy for opening up more jobs next month and in the next six months.
This is not a day to only discuss businesses that can bring a thousand jobs to our city, but we need to know how we can help 1000 London businesses expand by one employee. This will be a formula that can get Londoners working in the here and now.”
London CAO, Jeff Fielding presented “Council’s Investment and Economic Prosperity Agenda”. It detailed the measures that are now in place to ensure financial stability for the city and provided a look at upcoming actions.
Participants from every sector including business, labour, education, health care, research, technology, tourism, development and builders brought their ideas and concerns to the podium.
The Mayor vowed to see the launch of Council’s Investment and Economic Prosperity Committee moved up to early September to help get initiatives moving and partnerships in place.
