As the last pieces of furniture roll off an assembly line in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, workers contemplate a move west for new jobs.
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\nShaw Wood’s contract with furniture retailer IKEA is coming to an end. With no one to sell to, the manufacturing plant in Cornwallis will close on July 31.<\/p>\n
Darren Gumbly, his partner and their two children hear the siren call of a booming Western Canadian economy.<\/p>\n
“That seems to be the only place where there’s any demand of jobs. It’s a shame for this area,” said Gumbly, one of the 200 workers about to lose their jobs.<\/p>\n
Spirits were high when the plant opened in 1998 as a cornerstone of the Annapolis Basin Conference Centre, designed to revitalize the former military base.<\/p>\n
Shaw Wood became a bustling business, providing well-paying jobs to an area of the province much in need. In 2000, the workforce doubled to 200 after exports reached almost $20 million, up from $4 million a year earlier.<\/p>\n
But it all soured just a few months ago, when Shaw announced it had lost IKEA because of a high Canadian dollar and competition overseas.<\/p>\n
Lawrence Garner, a local businessman, fears the plant closure will trigger a cycle of decline in the Cornwallis area.<\/p>\n
“You find young families pull out of the area and when young families pull out schools start to close,” he said.<\/p>\n
Like Gumbly, Lee Archibald plans to head to Alberta to find a new job. He expects many in a group of 20 taking a heavy machinery course will follow too.<\/p>\n
“A lot of them want to go out west and run heavy machinery,” Archibald said. “There’s a lot of young people going.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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