Weekly Regional Business Intelligence
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Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc.
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Toyota to deploy humanoid robots at Woodstock plant
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) announced this week it plans to deploy “humanoid robots” at its assembly plant in Woodstock, which builds hybrid RAV4s, as part of a new partnership with Agility Robotics. The program will see seven ‘Digit’ machines from Agility working to feed totes of automotive parts to the assembly line. “After evaluating a number of robots, we are excited to deploy Digit to improve the team member experience and further increase operational efficiency in our manufacturing facilities,” said TMMC president Tim Hollander. Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, said that “we will be the first company to deliver the first cooperatively safe humanoid robot to work alongside people, allowing companies like Toyota to scale their use of humanoids well beyond what is possible today.”
The upshot: Just as the region’s autoworkers might have looked to the Woodstock Toyota plant (Toyota renewed its commitment to the facility last month) — ack, now the robots are coming! Here is how Forbes describes Digit: “More vaguely humanoid in shape than others, it has a shoebox-shaped head, a cuboid torso and bird-like backward bending knees.” The whole tie-up will be a major test of how well these kinds of robots can function in mass production — and it should be said this is a far trickier challenge than just building the robots in the first place, with a lot of kinks still to be worked out before the tech become commonplace. “Cost of deployment can be more than the price of the robot by a lot,” Agility’s CTO Pras Velagapudi told TechCrunch last year. “AI tools let us decrease that cost of deployment, decrease the amount of time getting the robot configured and getting it operating at a level of performance that they want.”
Read more: Forbes | TechCrunch
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More job cuts coming to Fanshawe, targets 40 per cent workforce reduction
Fanshawe College says that they are planning to cut 163 additional jobs, despite an announcement of new funding from the province last week. “I’m encouraged by the announcement, but I wouldn’t want you to think it’s the answer to all our challenges,” school president Peter Devlin told staff at a recent town hall, where he announced the school was updating its target for cuts to 500 positions, which Devlin said “is tied directly to the number of students we have and the number of students we project.” The school doesn’t yet know how much of the additional post-secondary funding, which totals $6.4 billion over four years, it will receive. “I suspect it will be another uncomfortable year,” Devlin said. “Tough decisions follow, that is for sure.”
The upshot: Fanshawe’s reaction differs somewhat from other colleges, which were able to (at least temporarily) avoid some planned cuts following the announcement. At Algonquin College in Ottawa, a plan to cut 30 programs was “postponed” in light of the new funding announcement, although the sense there is that cuts are still coming. Fanshawe said it has not made any decisions about where job cuts will be concentrated, but when they’re finished, the 500 jobs will represent approximately 40 per cent of the school’s workforce eliminated over the past couple years. Devlin made it clear to staff that “tough times in the post-secondary sector, particularly in the college sector, and indeed at Fanshawe College,” still lay ahead.
Read more: CBC News London | CTV News London
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Hyde Park BIA backs off expansion plan
The Hyde Park BIA says it is formally scrapping a plan to expand its boundaries after the idea received a tepid response from both area businesses and its council partners. “This was a difficult decision that was not made lightly and stems not from a lack of desire or commitment, but rather from the reality of external political and financial pressures that exist in today’s economic environment,” wrote Tom Delaney, chair of the BIA, and Donna Szpakowski, the BIA’s CEO and general manager, in a letter to the planning committee formally withdrawing their proposed boundary expansion. The expansion (which would have seen the BIA representing everything west of Wonderland Road and north of Oxford Street) was first proposed in 2024, but ran into choppy waters quickly, with few businesses lining up to participate and a number of larger players, such as the owners of Sherwood Forest Mall, noting concern regarding special tax levies the expansion would bring.
The upshot: Will the expansion plan be gone for good? That seems unlikely, even if it remains somewhat unclear why the idea is being pursued so vigorously. Delaney and Szpakowski said they “hope to return with a future boundary expansion proposal.” Councillor Corrine Rahman, who sits on the board of the BIA, seems to be keen to bring the idea back in some form or another as well. “It should be because people are championing it and because they want to be part of the BIA,” she said of a potential future revival. “It’s of course, by no fault of their own that the BIA is not moving forward at this time.”
Read more: CTV News London
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London Veteran Village receives $4-million boost
The Homes for Heroes Foundation is getting a $4-million boost for its tiny home village to house homeless veterans. The donation is coming from the London Community Foundation’s Fund for Change — the pool of money to address homelessness launched a couple of years back with an anonymous $25-million donation. According to Homes for Heroes, the donation will help them break ground next month on the 25-home village, with an expected completion later this year. “This extraordinary $4-million gift is truly transformative for Homes for Heroes and for the veterans we serve,” said Brad Field, president and CEO of Homes for Heroes. “It brings us significantly closer to realizing the London Veteran Village and, more importantly, to changing lives by providing safe, stable housing and a renewed sense of dignity, community, and hope.” When completed, the tiny home village near Wellington and Commissioners roads will be the largest of its kind in Canada, and will include support resources, gardens+ and a resource centre.
The upshot: The Homes for Heroes Tiny Home model has been a successful experiment elsewhere in the country, with similar villages built in Edmonton, Calgary, Kingston and Winnipeg. According to a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. report, homes at the Edmonton village cost around $67,000 to build, which allowed them to charge as little as $600 per month in rent and also fund support services. “Since the project began, 83 veterans from the Edmonton and Calgary villages have moved on to life independently, a major accomplishment,” the report reads. “The H4HF project shows that modular construction is an appropriate and cost-effective way to create housing for homeless veterans.”
Read more: London Free Press | CMHC
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Erin O’Toole joins Huron University
Former leader of the federal Conservatives Erin O’Toole has a new gig at Huron University. Specifically, the former politician is coming in as a part-time adjunct professor in the Governance, Leadership & Ethics department, as well as at Huron’s flagship Nation Builder program. “We are thrilled to welcome The Honourable Erin O’Toole to the Huron community,” said Huron president Barry Craig. “With his diverse background and passion for principled leadership, he will bring valuable real-world perspective to our students.” His first act as a new prof will be a lecture on geopolitical risks facing Canada and its allies, the school said.
The upshot: O’Toole has kept a pretty low profile following his departure from Canadian federal politics in 2023 after being replaced as leader by Pierre Poilievre — he’s primarily been occupying roles in the private sector. He told CBC News London one of the motivators for joining Huron was the opportunity to help train young students to navigate a new economic order. “As Prime Minister Carney said in the speech at Davos, we’re going through an upending of the world order, a rupture, and we need to make sure the next generation of leaders is ready for that,” O’Toole said. “We need to make sure that the next generation of leaders tackle some of this generational unfairness and defend our institutions at a time when there’s eroding trust in them.” He said he wants to work with some of the Huron students who are looking at moving over to Ivey, adding that “we want our business leaders to know more about geopolitics, about reconciliation, about social cohesion issues.”
Read more: Huron University | CBC News London
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CAPS Committee votes to keep landlords’ names off public database
A push by Councillors Sam Trosow and David Ferreira to make it easier for the public to access landlords’ information was voted down by a city committee this week. Trosow and Ferreira grilled city staff on their recommendation not to make the identities and contact information of landlords licensed under the Residential Rental Unit Licensing bylaw easier to access. “Sharing this information with the public suggests that people should contact landlords directly about bylaw violations,” staff said in a report. “Civic administration is of the view that the city should not encourage the public to take on enforcement of the city’s bylaws.” Ferreira argued this is similar information to business contact information and should be accessible via a city website, and Trosow added, “It creates a situation where the city is protecting the anonymity of the property owners, and there’s no reason in the privacy laws that has to happen.” The motion to make the information available failed after a two-two vote at a Community and Protective Services (CAPS) Committee meeting, with Councillors Anna Hopkins and Jerry Pribil voting against.
The upshot: It’s a bit of a technical dispute here. For the bulk of landlords, the distinction is one of whether someone can access their information online or whether they have to go to City Hall to access it via a dedicated terminal. However, Trosow argued the issue is more germane when it comes to the question of absentee landlords. “You have to go through layers of legal work to ascertain the identity of absentee owners, and this is not conducive to a good neighbourly feeling on the block,” he said. The issue wasn’t fully settled at the committee level though, and will now head to council in early March, where the report on making this information will be brought forward without a staff recommendation attached, giving council as a whole the opportunity to make the final call.
Read more: CTV News London | CBC News London
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Dispatch: February 20, 2026
A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week.
View listings here
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