London Inc. Weekly

Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc.

London Machinery shifts work to U.S., 50 jobs lost at London plant

Fifty workers at concrete mixer manufacturer London Machinery on Robins Hill Road, comprising 25 per cent of the workforce, are being laid off as the plant shifts some of its production to the U.S., the company reported this week. “We’re not closing the London production facility,” company president Robert Monchamp said on Wednesday. “We remain committed to serving the Canadian market with production in London. Our recent investment in a U.S. manufacturing facility is a long-planned growth investment, not a replacement for our Canadian facilities.” Monchamp told The London Free Press that U.S. tariffs were the driving factor. “Tariffs have changed things, so we have adjusted. Like every business in Canada, we had to adjust to a new reality.” In 2005, London Machinery was acquired by Oshkosh Corp., which subsequently sold the company to Florida-based Right Lane in 2023.

The upshot: The company seems to be trying its level best to spin this as something other than a company moving production to the U.S. in light of tariffs, although that has been harder to reconcile with Monchamp’s statements that the move was about tariffs. “A prior owner shut down our U.S. production facility in 2020, and we are simply recreating those historical manufacturing capabilities,” said London Machinery CEO Eric Mara, adding the firm “intend to continue producing concrete mixers in London for many decades to come.” Whatever the exact reason, the news was hard on the workers — both those being laid off and those who remain. “Morale is low right now. People are confused. It’s very uncertain,” one welder told the Free Press. “We all have mortgages and car payments and some are thinking maybe they shouldn’t have bought that new car. It’s been a good place to work for the most part.” 

Read more: London Free Press

Ontario lifts post-secondary tuition freeze

The Ontario government announced yesterday it is lifting the freeze on domestic tuition at the province’s post-secondary institutions. Universities and colleges in Ontario will now be able to raise tuition rates by up to two per cent per year for three years, then up to two per cent of the three-year average rate of inflation, whichever is less, in the years following. The province said the lifting of the tuition freeze will result in added costs of $0.18/day for college students and $0.47/day for university students. In addition, the province announced it would be injecting an additional $6.4 billion into the post-secondary sector over the next four years – about $1,750 per post-secondary student, per year. “The Ontario government’s tremendous funding commitments will ensure universities like Western can continue delivering the excellent education that our students deserve, and our economy needs,” said Western University president Alan Shepard in a statement. Maureen Adamson, president and CEO of Colleges Ontario, added that “this funding expands regional opportunities for learners and employers alike.”

The upshot: The lifting of the tuition freeze is one of the major asks of the post-secondary sector in light of mounting financial pressures. If there is a loser here, though, it might be students: along with the tuition hikes, the government overhauled the rules around OSAP, greatly reducing the amount of grants students are eligible to receive (as opposed to loans). Under the new rules, only 25 per cent of financial aid will be able to come in the form of grants, down from 85 per cent previously[1] . The result will likely be higher student debt loads for graduates coming out of school. “Students generally are working part-time jobs and are navigating unaffordability kind of all over the place,” said Sayak Sneddon-Ghosal, president of the Ontario Undergraduate Students Alliance. “Adding this on top of that is really disappointing to see.”

Read more: Globe and Mail | CTV News London

Black Walnut Bakery Café reopens in Wortley Village

After being burned just about to the ground in April 2023, the Black Walnut Bakery Café in Wortley Village reopened this week. The popular café has been closed for nearly three years, and its reopening had many people in the neighbourhood talking. “I was walking past every other day just to see whether it was open and I finally heard it on the radio,” resident Brenda Cummings told 106.9 The X. “It’s big news. I can see this is going to be the hot-spot going forward.” Another told CTV News London the café “did an awesome job” on the rebuild, saying it was “exactly like it was before, and it’s beautiful.” Co-owner Ed Etheridge said the neighbourhood response is meaningful. “You don’t realize that people care so much and that it means so much to people,” he said. “It really means something to the community.” One person was arrested and convicted of arson in connection with the fire back in 2023. The Black Walnut also operates a second location on Richmond Row.

The upshot: Lots of care seems to have been taken to keep the Black Walnut feeling like the Black Walnut. Etheridge told CTV it was not necessarily a super easy construction project to rebuild it. “We kind of thought it would be about a year, maybe a year and a half, to get it all done, but it was a pretty long journey,” Etheridge said. Part of that, he noted, was because they wanted to keep the old design. “I think a lot of people these days put up that square-looking column on buildings, but we wanted to bring back that past and bring back the community love so much, and I think we brought it back really similar to where it was outside and inside. A lot of roadblocks on our way, but we’re here, we made it, and that’s fantastic.” The Black Walnut’s official grand reopening celebration is Saturday, February 14, starting at 8 a.m.

Read more: CTV News London | 106.9 The X

Mayor’s home ownership program goes back to the drawing board

City council voted against Mayor Josh Morgan’s home ownership incentive program, a plan announced in his State of the City address that would have seen the city absorb 60 per cent of the development charges for new homes and condos, provided the purchase price is at or below London’s 2025 average home price of $630,000. While a divided committee had narrowly approved the plan, council as a whole voted it down (12 to three) on Tuesday, citing concerns around the length that participants would need to live in the home, repayment details and concerns that the program was primarily aimed at helping developers clear out inventory. “I don’t want to support a program that’s not going to be successful,” the mayor said after the council meeting. “We’ve got some details that we’ve got to work out on some parameters of that program.” It was estimated the proposed program would save homebuyers anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000.

The upshot: The plan received criticism from several councillors who viewed it as too developer-friendly, and a way for developers to maintain pricing. “The market corrections that we have been trying to make for the last three years are happening,” said Councillor Skylar Franke. “If homebuilders want to clear their inventory, they can lower the price by themselves.” Morgan said city staff will return with additional options for council’s consideration over the next couple of months and that he remains open to working with colleagues to ensure the program moves forward. “I do think that with just one more cycle, a little bit of input and some changes, we could come up with something that could get more support here, be more appealing to taxpayers and actually really help people,” Councillor Susan Stevenson told The London Free Press.

Read more: London Free Press

YXU flights to Cuba halted amid U.S. fuel blockade

WestJet is the latest airline to say it is cancelling all flights to Cuba, including those flying out of London International Airport, over concerns the country may run out of aviation fuel. Air Transat and Air Canada both announced similar cancellations earlier in the week. Two weekly Sunwing (WestJet acquired Sunwing Airlines in 2025) flights — from London to Varadero and Cayo Coco — will be affected. President and CEO Scott McFadzean says that “you’re looking at close to 400 passengers a week that will be, unfortunately, not able to go on their holiday to Cuba this year.” Affected customers are being told to contact the airline to arrange for a refund or credit.

The upshot: It’s a bummer of a situation if you were about to go on holiday, only to see it upended by international geopolitics. The fuel shortage in Cuba comes after the U.S. has been blockading the island nation since early January, after the renditioning of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. With the blockade in place, no oil is getting into the country. On Thursday, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives argued that Canada ought to be sending jet fuel to Cuba directly, saying that “Canadians visit Cuba more than any other Caribbean or Central American country, and Canada is Cuba’s second-largest source of foreign investment. Canada is formally opposed to the decades-long U.S. blockade of the island. It is time to put that opposition into practice.” However, that remains a long shot, to be extremely generous.

Read more: CBC News London

City mulls over new district energy system

The city is looking at the possibility of building and running a new micro-scale district energy system to power some of its buildings. The idea is a long way off, for now — all the city’s infrastructure committee has agreed to do is look into a funding agreement with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to conduct feasibility studies on a range of city buildings, with the most intriguing possibility being “the possibility of a micro-scale district energy system to support Dearness Home, Tourism London and Fire Hall 09 as an innovative aspect of this grant application.” Those are three municipal buildings at the corner of Wellington and Southdale roads that could benefit from being on their own little micro-grids, said Councillor Skylar Franke. “If you have a cluster of buildings close together and you’re able to provide them with electricity or with heat, it’s more efficient that way. It’s more reliable,” Franke told CTV News London. “I think this is a somewhat modest investment to potentially have a lot of operating returns in the long run and including some permanently lowered utility bills for some of our facilities.”

The upshot: If you recognize the term district energy system lately, it’s because London’s other prominent district energy system — the beleaguered Enwave steam lines that heat several downtown buildings — has been in the news lately. The idea to potentially linking three municipal buildings together in this way has the backing of London Hydro as well. “Modelling a micro-scale district energy system for a cluster of buildings within the project scope presents a unique opportunity for exploration,” it said in a letter to the committee. District energy systems have worked well for a long time in London, and many see them as environmentally efficient ways for municipalities to power buildings as they try to reach various sustainability targets, though they can be complicated to plan. “This will provide us with that roadmap,” said Franke. “And somebody else is willing to pay for it, so I think it’s a win for Londoners.”

Read more: CTV News London

Dispatch: February 13, 2026

A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week.

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