page_title: Economy of Hamilton, Ontario
section_title: Economic highlights
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of Hamilton, Ontario / Economic highlights
caption_attribution_description: Lloyd D. Jackson Square (Mall), downtown Hamilton, Ontario
context_section_description: The Government of Canada published a "Labour Market Bulletin" for the Hamilton Area in 2006. The report states that Hamilton has a shortage of hotel facilities, truck drivers and finance professionals, all of which are in high demand. As well, 55% of the manufacturing workforce is expected to retire in the next 15-years and the Ontario government has injected millions of dollars into Hamilton's education sector. The steel industry also saw some highlights; Stelco emerged from bankruptcy protection and Dofasco has been taken over by Arcelor.
  According to Canadian Business magazine, September, 2008 edition, Hamilton ranks as the third best location in English Canada for doing business. The survey conducted by the magazine ranks cities based on the variable operating costs of doing business, cost of living, non-residential building permits, unemployment rate changes and crime rates. Hamilton was ranked seventh overall in the survey of forty cities across Canada. Only Kitchener, Ontario and Moncton, New Brunswick ranked higher in English Canada. Some of the pluses given to Hamilton include its Great Lakes port, its International Airport, the Queen Elizabeth Way from Toronto to the U.S. border, McMaster University has Canada's highest ratio of research funding to operating budget and that Hamilton is emerging as a biotech hub.
  In 2006, General Electric, Vicwest Steel and Swiss-owned SFS Intec all chose to relocate to Hamilton from neighbouring G.T.A. (Greater Toronto Area). In addition, existing companies like Taylor Steel, G.T. French, Superior Boilerworks and Connon Nurseries all made major investments in their Hamilton operations.
  Hamilton's Coppley Apparel Group is doing something rare in the Canadian clothing industry - adding jobs. The company plans to expand its employment by almost 200 jobs - about 30 per cent - starting with 50 additional jobs this year in 2007. Coppley's growth burst will bring its workforce to about 750 people, the majority of them in Hamilton. The new jobs follow exploding sales growth as the company uses computer-aided custom tailoring of suits that give struggling retailers a much-needed cash-flow boost. Coppley, which has been a fixture in downtown Hamilton for more than 150 years, pioneered a method of using a computer, a grid and a digital camera to do the work of a master tailor, producing made-to-measure suits in as few as seven days - work that used to take six weeks.
  McMaster Innovation Park, a massive McMaster University research campus, is being developed on the former Camco lands near Westdale. This will be an "idea factory" employing scientists and technicians. CANMET will employ 100 research scientists and support workers, including some of the top minds in Canada and will be the anchor tenant of the facility. They will be working closely with McMaster researchers and private industry to develop technologies for metal and materials manufacturing, processing and evaluation. Expected to be up-and-running by 2010. Other tenants already announced for the park include a corrosion research centre sponsored by General Motors and a diesel engine research lab sponsored by Ford.
  On September 27, 2007, Centre Mall owners announce plans for a 23-building super centre on the property on Barton Street East. Cost is estimated to be around $100-million and will take up 700,000 square feet (65,000 m²) of retail space. This will end up being the largest redevelopment project in the history of Hamilton's east-end. The buildings on the property will be grouped around the edge of the property and create a friendly, pedestrian-oriented design rather than a commercial island in a sea of parking. One week later, on October 4, 2007, it is announced that the Mountain Plaza Mall at Fennell Avenue and Upper James Street is to be rebuilt in a $50-million project. Announcement made by Flavio Volpe, spokesperson for Smart Centres Ltd., Vaughan, Ontario-based company that bought the Mall on November 2006.
  A four-lane parkway called Red Hill Valley Parkway (or popularly, the Red Hill Creek Expressway), a municipal e
caption: Lloyd D. Jackson Square (Mall), Commerce Place Complex
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