When grocery and retail giant Loblaw announced in January that it would shutter warehousing operations in Ottawa and Laval while expanding them in Cornwall, many saw it as a corporate restructuring and jobs lost to automation.
But that simplistic narrative misses a powerful story of how Cornwall grew to become one of Eastern Canada’s major warehousing and distribution hubs. Municipal policy decisions, a strategic geographic location and other competitive advantages have helped to attract some of the country’s biggest corporations to this city of 50,000 residents.
Loblaw’s Shoppers Drug Mart facility isn’t the only warehousing and distribution operation in Cornwall. In fact, multiple companies have set up shop over the past 20 years. These warehousing, distribution and head office operations collectively add up to about 5.5 million square feet (and growing).
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Ottawa Business Journal
