Weekly Regional Business Intelligence
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“If at first you don’t succeed, you are running about average.” — M.H. Alderson
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Help wanted, and lots of it: LEDC releases report highlighting surging demand for workers across multiple sectors
To meet the labour needs of four key economic drivers over the next eight years, London will need to add close to 40,000 new workers, according to a new set of reports from the London Economic Development Corp. (LEDC) and its commissioned report partner, Ottawa-based think tank Smart Prosperity Institute. The four reports focus on key sectors ― advanced manufacturing, healthcare, construction and technology ― predicting that all of them will likely experience varying degrees of labour shortage through 2031. In construction, for instance, London will need to add around 13,000 workers. Healthcare will need to add around 9,300. Manufacturing is estimated to need 6,500, and tech will need around 11,000 workers. (Other sectors will need workers, of course, but weren’t specifically looked at.) “We know there is a substantial increase in overall demand, and we are seeing a wave of retirement, we’ve known for decades this was coming,” the report’s author Mike Moffat told the London Free Press.
The upshot: Moffatt, an economist, assistant Ivey prof and director at Smart Prosperity, authored the report alongside research associates Jesse Helmer (a former London city councillar) and Maryam Hosseini, and it appears to be aimed primarily at two audiences. The first is jobseekers ― you can think of the reports like giant help wanted signs in the city’s front window, broadcasting the demand for workers to the country and global labour markets. The second audience is the city itself, calling on it to recognize that attracting workers means providing good services and adequate housing. “Ensuring that we have housing and mobility options that are affordable and work for people,” one of the four reports concludes. “A lack of housing and transit options is a barrier to attracting and retaining employees, particularly at the entry level.”
Read more: LEDC | London Free Press
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A bumpy tenure gets bumpier as LHSC’s Jackie Schleifer Taylor takes leave
President and CEO of the London Health Sciences Centre Jackie Schleifer Taylor is going on immediate leave, the hospital’s board announced Wednesday, citing “health matters.” Board chair Matthew Wilson said in his announcement that Schleifer Taylor’s leave is “not associated with recent inquiries pertaining to international travel.” It seems few are buying it though. Schleifer Taylor has been under fire since recent revelations that the hospital was spending upwards of $500,000 for international trips to Portugal, Australia and the UAE. (The Australian trip was abruptly scrapped due to appropriately vague “unavoidable circumstances.”) These trips were slammed by critics as tone-deaf, coming as the healthcare system is struggling with underfunding, and has already led to an investigation by the provincial health ministry. Dr. Kevin Chan will take over Schleifer Taylor’s job in the interim period, the hospital said.
The upshot: Observers and stakeholders are clearly treating the leave announcement as something more than just a health matter. Peter Bergmanis, co-chair of the London Health Coalition, said there still needs to be “a real shift in accountability” and said that the hospital needs to be investigated. Schleifer Taylor’s short tenure had been tumultuous, to say the least. There was a costly overhaul of the upper levels of management, as well as major restructuring that added three new presidents at LHSC’s three campuses. She also dissolved ties with St. Joseph’s for reasons that have never really been made clear. The president of COPE Local 468 (which represents hospital office staff), Lorrie Vandersluis, said that turmoil at the top has been a major issue for their members, who are struggling with the degree of instability that has seeped into hospital management.
Read more: Global News London | CBC News London
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Medtech startup Tenomix receives new round of FACIT funding
Local medtech company Tenomix is getting a fresh injection of capital, thanks to investment from FACIT, a Toronto-based venture capital firm that focuses on innovations in cancer treatment in Ontario. According to FACIT, its investment in Tenomix will go towards “automating and improving efficiency of lymph node resection following surgery for colorectal cancer.” FACIT announced the investment ― along with investments in three additional companies ― on Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, highlighting that Tenomix was co-founded by Dr. Eveline Pasman (pictured with Tenomix’s Sherif Abdou, Saumik Biswas and Michael Lavdas). No financial terms of the investment were disclosed.
The upshot: Tenomix has worked with FACIT in the past ― in 2021, it received “six-figure funding” for its core tech, an ultrasound-based tool that automates and improves the efficiency of lymph node resection following surgery for colorectal cancer. Earlier this year, Tenomix also received funding via the i.d.e.a Fund. In an article in our summer print issue, the company said it was using the funding to grow its staff and continue working on bringing their technology to market.
Read more: Newswire | London Inc.
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Cannabis producer Indiva posts record quarter
The latest set of financial results from local cannabis edibles maker Indiva were released this week, with the company reporting “the best financial results in Indiva’s corporate history.” Following the launch of well-received new products, gross revenues rose more than 33 per cent from Q2 to $10.9 million, with gross quarterly profits coming in at $3.6 million (a 55.3 per cent increase over last year). This spike in revenue was driven primarily by the continued growth in Pearls by Grön gummies, the introduction of the new No Future line of gummies and vapes and orders for Wana gummies, which Indiva now contract produces for Canopy Growth. The No Future line grew particularly quickly, having been introduced only recently. “Total purchase orders received since inception in July 2023 for No Future gummies have now exceeded 1.3 million units, marking on the fastest growth trajectories of any new product introduction in Indiva’s history,” said CEO Niel Marotta.
The upshot: No doubt this will be a real shot in the arm for Indiva, which, despite a very strong reputation within the sector and consumers, has not been insulated from the industry’s wider struggles to turn a profit. It may also be seen as good news for the company that Health Canada appears to have ― for the moment at least ― backed off a little in its crusade against so-called “edible extracts”, a category of loophole-exploiting products that got around THC-per-package limits. Indiva had been one of the producers targeted by Health Canada for its Indiva Life lozenges. After briefly disappearing, other producers have started producing these products again, likely after a court decision chastised Health Canada for breaching procedure during its crackdown. “We continue to urge regulators to increase per-package THC limits on legal edibles so we can, as an industry, eliminate public safety risk by providing a safe, legal, competitive alternative to illegal copycat edibles,” said Marotta. “Until that day comes, Indiva will continue to leverage its robust new-product pipeline and position as the largest, low-cost producer of edibles in Canada, as we continue to delight of-age consumers with the quality and innovation we are known for.”
Read more: Green Market Report | Indiva
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Western and faculty association kiss and make up, Brescia merger back on track
Western is hoping to tamper some displeasure among faculty over the recent Brescia University College merger announcement (and the secrecy around it), and last Friday it issued an apology to the faculty association and an acknowledgement that it should have consulted the union earlier about the plans. In a joint statement issued by the university and the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA), Western said it was motivated by good intentions, but “should have meaningfully consulted earlier with UWOFA” over the plan. The statement also acknowledged it was Brescia that first approached Western about the merger over financial difficulties that the school was having.
The upshot: The apology was also the announcement of a truce between the school and the union, which had filed for a judicial review of the integration plan. The integration will go ahead, with the two sides agreeing to staffing matters, and the university agreeing to create 20 new full-time faculty positions over the next four years, as well as one librarian and one archivist position within 90 days of a formalized agreement. “The resolution paves a path for integration of Brescia faculty, librarians students and programs into Western,” they wrote in their sign-off. “The parties are pleased to have been able to reach this outcome.”
Read more: CTV News London | Western University
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Changes to booze retailing on the horizon
There are rumblings that the provincial government is preparing to make potentially sweeping changes to the way alcohol is sold in Ontario. According to a report in the CBC, the provincial government has been at work for months on a modernization plan for alcohol sales, hoping to fulfill a promise they made way back in 2018 to allow convenience stores to sell beer and wine. They also appear to want to go further with the changes, with sources telling the CBC that the province also wants to look at issues like the LCBO’s profit margins, quotas for Ontario-made products, tax cuts for craft breweries, and ― likely the big one ― whether it intends to terminate the master framework agreement (MFA) with The Beer Store, which one source said it may do by the end of the year.
The upshot: Negotiations over alcohol liberalization in Ontario always walk a fine line: the government is keen to support the free market, but also wants to protect the valuable revenues that flow from the LCBO into provincial coffers (the LCBO turned a $2.5 billion profit last year). Alcohol producers don’t appear to be looking for some kind of radical privatization of the LCBO, but do assert that it could easily afford to spread the profits around a little bit better, especially as producers struggle to turn profits of their own. On The Beer Store file, it’s likely a bit more straightforward political calculation for the Ford government. Consumers are comfortable enough with beer being sold in grocery stores, and mostly sympathetic with craft breweries who complain about being crowded out by huge multinationals. They’ll almost certainly scrap the MFA, but as for what replaces it? Well, that’s TBD.
Read more: CBC News
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Dispatch: November 24, 2023
A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week.
View listings here
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