Revised figures show Newmarket saw increase of 570 jobs, not 100

Yorkregion.com
April 12, 2015
By Lisa Queen

Newmarket’s employment number may be slightly rosier than York Region suggested last month but the town still attracted fewer jobs over the past five years than any other York Region municipality.

A regional report last month indicated Newmarket snagged only 100 of the 77,000 new jobs created in the region from 2009 to 2014.

Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen disputed the region’s figure, insisting the town was up 570 jobs during that period despite losing 902 jobs when solar panel production company Flextronics moved to Mexico and losing a further 322 jobs when York Regional Police relocated its headquarters to Aurora.

In an employment and industry report that went to council Thursday, the region now agrees Newmarket’s share of the 71,910 jobs created in the region between 2009 and 2014 was 570.

The region’s overall employment growth numbers changed because the new report reflects actual numbers from the employment survey rather than estimates.

Newmarket netted fewer jobs than municipalities not traditionally considered employment powerhouses. Georgina was up 700 jobs, while King Township grew by 880 positions over the five-year period.

Even disregarding York’s southern three municipalities, Markham, Vaughan and Richmond Hill, which were up 15,500, 35,480, and 8,750 jobs respectively, Newmarket fared poorly among its northern neighbours.

Whitchurch-Stouffville, netted 1,840 jobs, East Gwillimbury added 2,270 jobs and Aurora grew by 5,920 positions.

Mayor Tony Van Bynen acknowledged he’s not pleased with Newmarket’s results.

“I’m not happy any time we don’t see the same rate of growth as the overall regional average but I also know we’re going through a significant transition right now. I don’t know if there’s any other municipalities that have the level of intensification or the density in York Region that Newmarket has,” he said.

“I think some of the reality is Newmarket is land-bound and we did lose some fairly significant employment pieces and that kind of reinforces the need for us to focus on our economic development and that’s what we’re doing.”

Newmarket Chamber of Commerce president Debra Scott could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this year, she said the town should hire a second economic development officer.

The chamber has also pitched the idea in the past, after a consultant’s report several years ago said the town’s economic development resources were “severely constrained.”

The town is looking to put its subpar employment growth numbers behind it and move forward with economic development initiatives, Van Bynen said.

“When I drive, I look through the windshield, not the rearview mirror, so what we do is we want to focus on what’s ahead and we’ve got a lot of good initiatives going forward,” he said.

“We’ve got the high speed broadband underway, we’ve got the Create IT Now partnership with Southlake (Regional Health Centre), we’re looking at the innovation team and we’re updating our economic development plans. There is also a plan by the municipality to look at a targeted and focused marketing plan for Davis Drive now that we are turning a corner and finishing that (construction).”

The town has set aside money to hire an economic development officer but has used the money on other economic development initiatives, Van Bynen said.

“That position has been included in our budget for at least two or three years. We’ve deployed those resources differently,” he said.