Amazon announces major Montreal-area expansion

Amazon has announced a major expansion of its “sortation” and delivery stations in the Greater Montreal Area which will add hundreds of thousands of square feet to its real estate footprint in the province and create more than 1,000 jobs, the international e-commerce giant says.

The announcement includes two sortation centres, in Coteau-du-Lac and Longueuil, along with two delivery stations in Laval and a third in Lachine.

“Amazon is proud to continue its investment in Quebec and provide our employees with great, safe jobs and better futures,” said Jean-Francois Héroux, site leader for Amazon Canada, in the announcement.

“Our new facilities will help us meet our customers’ growing demand for great products and faster delivery times while offering our Associates access to incredible career growth opportunities through on-the-job training and upskilling so they can reach their career aspirations.

“Our expansion will also help the thousands of local small businesses that partner with Amazon to get their products to customers around the world, particularly during this critical time for their business.”

Amazon plans to open its largest sortation centre in the province in Coteau-du-Lac later this year, a 520,000-square-foot facility the company says will create at least 500 jobs.

Its first sortation centre in Quebec opened in Longueuil in late 2020. The 200,000-square-foot facility, which also created about 500 jobs, is located at 5799 Route de l’Aéroport.

The facility opened just in time to deal with the holiday rush of package deliveries.

In addition to the larger sortation centres, it will also add three delivery stations to accommodate the so-called last-mile aspect of its distribution network.

The first two will open in 2021: in Laval at 5555 Ernest-Cormier and in Lachine at 1100 and 1200 Rue Norman.

The third delivery station is to open in 2022 in Laval at 2700 Francis Hughes. Amazon says these delivery stations will add hundreds more full- and part-time jobs.

Amazon opened its first operations facility in Quebec in July 2020, a fulfillment centre in Lachine, creating 300 full-time jobs.

Amazon’s Canadian footprint

The company currently has more than a dozen major distribution hubs across Canada in cities such as the Greater Toronto Area, Metro Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.

It is building several more including a 2.8-million-square-foot, multi-level hub in Ottawa which will be the country’s largest such facility.

Being constructed in suburban Barrhaven by Montreal-based builder/developer Broccolini, it is also Canada’s first multi-level industrial project of this scale.