Record construction, ‘massive investment’ projected for Oshawa

After an economic slowdown during the pandemic shared by communities across the country, the City of Oshawa is projecting a strong year ahead with “robust building activity” and construction records.

“Oshawa is back,” enthused Tito-Dante Marimpietri, the chair of the city’s Economic Development Services Committee. “We are increasingly a city of choice for many job-creating blue-chip companies to inject massive investment.”

The city is making it easier to attract investment by freezing building permit fees and launching a new online application portal to make the development process easier, faster and “better for business,” Marimpietri said.

The city has also increased staffing for faster turnarounds, regularly updates the municipal website and has begun reviewing building permit applications in tandem with site plan applications, streamlining the approval process and saving valuable time.

Same-day inspection service is also an option for developers and multiple city departments have teamed up to offer ‘concierge’ customer service, where applicants are supported at every stage of the process.

Rebalancing the property base “so things are finally fair for residential taxpayers” has been the goal for the city since Marimpietri took over the newly renamed committee in 2022.

Oshawa’s Tito-Dante Marimpietri

“We’ve been working to restore confidence in our city as a choice place for job creation … but this takes time and a team aligned in the same direction,” he said. “We want things to be fairer for residential taxpayers who have been forced for too long to carry the heavy burden of an eroded industrial tax base.”

That ambitious growth of the industrial tax base needs to be anchored by those blue-chip companies, which bring with them thousands of employment opportunities. Companies like Martin Brower, a world leader in supply chain solutions, and Lactalis Canada, which went from groundbreaking to ribbon-cutting for its distribution centre in just 13 months, with both facilities opening in Northwood Business Park in the last year.

“This vital blueprint reflects the work and persistent focus of our team in delivering tangible results,” Marimpietri noted. “It also creates an environment where major companies and small business owners alike can grow and thrive in our city.”

In 2024 Oshawa issued building permits worth over $649 million in total construction value, marking its second highest building year on record, including a record-breaking $191 million in institutional construction.

“We are now Toronto’s most dynamic neighbour and the hub of economic activity for the eastern GTA,” Marimpietri said. “We’re creating record breaking construction permit value numbers, to the tune of billions of dollars, with millions of square feet in massive prestige industrial building spaces, and thousands of new jobs in our community.”

To continue attracting investment to Oshawa means continuing to cut unnecessary red tape, “meaningfully” reduce bureaucracies, freeze fees, and “come to terms with the fact that the construction industry is one of the largest and most important job creating labour industries in the world,” he added.

“The economic spinoff helps to activate small businesses, sell vehicles and equipment, create much needed living spaces, build industrial manufacturing and distribution centre and secure good paying jobs that Oshawa deserves.”

That bright economic future is also starting to extend beyond the Northwood Business Park and the rest of the booming north, he said.

“We are definitely doing things differently but it’s working – look for very big things to happen in our downtown urban core,” he said. “It all means a very bright future for generations of residents who depend on our efforts to create a balanced quality of life in Oshawa; a real self-sustaining city where employment, housing, green-spaces and high-level post-secondary education – and especially healthcare – are key to a sustainable community.”

“We want to continue working to build a real proper metropolitan city where parks and green spaces are augmented and equally considered in our focus of creating a thriving and self-sustaining age-friendly place that embraces business as well as leisure.”

For more information about the permit application process, visit the city’s Building Permits page.