Tech giant Garmin to create hundreds of new jobs in Cochrane expansion

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COCHRANE – Bucking a pattern of downsizing and mass layoffs within the expertise sector, Garmin Canada says it would double its workforce in an growth of its Cochrane headquarters.

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The software-wireless agency, finest identified for its bodily health monitoring gear, says it would add a 22,000-square-foot third ground to its Cochrane facility — a 50 % improve in ground area that can accommodate workers development of 200 to 400 extra the following few years

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It comes 22 years after chief government Jim Rooney began the enterprise in his Cochrane storage, and as lots of the sector’s greatest gamers shed tens of hundreds of jobs.

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“What has benefited us is having a bit bit extra of a conservative sort of firm — rising in a gradual means,” Rooney stated.

“This (growth) will give us the power to proceed to develop and double once more over time and convey helpful expertise jobs to the Cochrane space.”

The announcement comes lower than 5 years after Garmin moved with fewer than 100 workers to a website that was a air pollution reclamation venture.

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Rooney stated the group 13 kilometers northwest of Calgary has remained a great setting, with its rising community of trails within the shadow of the Rockies and residents keen to place its merchandise to the take a look at.

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“We have now extra individuals testing our merchandise than working on this constructing — we’d like that engaged dedication, and we now have it right here,” he stated.

The power will develop and take a look at wi-fi merchandise and equipment equivalent to coronary heart charge screens and bicycle energy pedals, together with a variety of biosensors.

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“5 or 10 years in the past, we have been simply making equipment (right here),” Rooney stated.

Dismissal a priority within the expertise sector

There have been issues about setbacks in Alberta’s tech sector, with Calgary-based Benevity saying final month that it was shedding 14 % of its workforce, or 137 workers, citing modifications within the financial local weather.

On the identical time, Alphabet Inc. analysis lab DeepMind stated it would shut its Edmonton outpost and lay off some operational workers within the UK, a part of the tech big’s current program of cost-cutting.

Late final month, NDP chief Rachel Notley stated that with out investment-oriented incentives within the sector, the province dangers shedding its aggressive benefit.

“All of it comes all the way down to how we do inside that (international) context,” Notley stated, noting Alberta’s development charge within the sector remains to be effectively beneath the nationwide common.

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Technical sector a spotlight for the province: minister

Some within the sector have warned the province is shedding potential enterprise with out tax credit, even because the province has seen file capital investments in expertise, together with a complete of $561 million in 2021.

Municipal Affairs Minister Rebecca Schulz, who attended Monday’s Garmin announcement, was requested if she was involved that these developments would have an effect on the province’s pursuit of financial diversification.

“The expertise area is an area that our authorities works very laborious to place ourselves after we discuss financial diversification. . . it is an space we’re dedicated to rising, and a part of that’s being actually open to working with totally different buyers and totally different corporations,” she stated.

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“At this time’s instance, working with municipalities to spur that funding and development, that is an important position for our provincial authorities to play.”

She stated highlighting Alberta’s high quality of life, low tax regime and making certain there’s an informed workforce is vital to sustaining and attracting expertise corporations and others.

‘An vital time in Cochrane’s historical past’

The province’s Group Revitalization Levy, which permits municipalities to borrow in opposition to future tax income to develop companies, led to a 2,638 per cent improve in taxable evaluation development and was a consider Garmin Canada’s development, Schulz stated.

“It was extraordinarily profitable . . . the growth of Garmin Canada’s facility is an indication of future funding,” she stated.

Garmin’s growth ought to herald comparable enterprise developments within the fast-growing city of 35,000 individuals, Mayor Jeff Genung stated.

“That is really a pivotal time in Cochrane’s historical past,” stated Genung.

“We will see two or three extra expertise buildings rising from this (beforehand) contaminated website.”

— With recordsdata from Lisa Johnson

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn