Amazon Announces Plans to Build Second Fulfillment Centre in Ottawa

 The new 450,000 square-foot facility will create more than 1,000 full-time jobs in the nation's capital

SEATTLE, June 30, 2020 /CNW/ - (NASDAQ: AMZN) – Amazon.com, Inc. today announced plans to open its second facility in Ottawa, Ontario. The new fulfillment centre, which is anticipated to open in 2021, will create more than 1,000 new, full-time jobs starting at $16 an hour with comprehensive benefits and opportunities in an industry-leading workplace. This will be Amazon's eighth facility in Ontario and its 14^th fulfillment centre in Canada.

"We're thrilled to be opening a second fulfillment centre in the nation's capital to better serve communities across Ontario," said Sumegha Kumar, Director, Canadian Customer Fulfillment Operations, Amazon Canada. "We appreciate the strong support from local, provincial, and federal leaders. We look forward to creating over 1,000 full-time jobs while providing the Barrhaven community with great opportunities that have competitive pay and benefits starting on day one."

At this new fulfillment centre, employees will work alongside Amazon robotics to pick, pack and ship small items to customers such as books, electronics and toys. This will be Amazon's newest robotics fulfillment centre in Canada.

"During these unprecedented times, companies like Amazon are going the extra mile to protect employees and customers, while adapting to the new environment we face," said Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario. "We welcome today's exciting announcement of Amazon bringing another 1,000 jobs to the Ottawa area. Now more than ever, we must all work together to reopen our economy safely, get more people back to work, and chart a path to a strong recovery for our province."

''I'm pleased that Amazon has once again chosen to invest in Ottawa," said Jim Watson, Mayor, City of Ottawa. "This facility will create more than 1,000 jobs for our residents when it opens in 2021, and it will help keep employment strong in our city.''

''I'm thrilled that this advanced robotics fulfillment centre is coming to Citigate to create over 1,000 jobs in Barrhaven, helping us diversify our community's employment base," said Jan Harder, Councillor, Barrhaven Ward. "I want to thank Amazon for going ahead with this project, and I look forward to attending the official opening.''

Amazon is also planning five new delivery stations across Ontario in Whitby, Oakville, Cambridge, Brampton, and Scarborough, with the sites anticipated to launch in 2020. Delivery stations power the last mile of Amazon's order fulfillment process. Packages are transported to delivery stations from Amazon fulfillment and sortation centers, and then loaded into vehicles for delivery to customers. They will create hundreds of permanent, full-time and part-time jobs, in addition to offering entrepreneurs the opportunity to build their own small business delivering Amazon packages, and independent contractors the flexibility to be their own boss and create their own schedule delivering for Amazon Flex. To learn more, visit www.logistics.amazon.com and https://flex.amazon.com.

Full-time employees at Amazon receive competitive hourly wages, including medical, vision and dental coverage, a group RRSP plan, stock awards, and performance-based bonuses starting on day one. Amazon also offers employees access to innovative programs like Career Choice, where it will pay up to 95 per cent of tuition for courses related to in-demand fields, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon. Since the program's launch, more than 25,000 employees across the globe have pursued degrees in game design and visual communications, nursing, IT programming and radiology, to name a few.

Amazon is proud to call Canada home. In total, Amazon employs more than 13,500 full-time employees at the company's fulfillment centres, corporate offices, development centres, and other facilities in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec.

Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than CAD $7.5 billion in Canada through its customer fulfillment and cloud infrastructure and employee compensation. Amazon estimates that its Canadian investments have created an additional 14,000 indirect jobs on top of the company's direct hires.

Recently, Amazon Canada committed a $3 million donation to support those who are most affected by the COVID-19 crisis in Canada. Funds are dedicated to supporting local organizations in the communities where employees live and work, including the Canadian Red Cross, United Way Centraide Canada, and numerous food banks. The Ottawa Food Bank is among the recipients.

Amazon's worldwide fulfillment network supports millions of businesses of all sizes through its Fulfillment by Amazon offering, and many of those local businesses are based in Canada. There are more than 30,000 authors, small and medium-sized businesses, and developers in Canada growing their companies and reaching new customers with Amazon products and services.

To learn more about working at an Amazon fulfillment centre, visit www.amazondelivers.jobs.

The Barrhaven project is being developed by Broccolini.

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

SOURCE Amazon Canada

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