First Notice: Hawthorne Transmission Station upgrades; temporary foreign worker regulations; Oshawa building records

Hydro One completes $85 million investment at Hawthorne Transmission Station

Hydro One announced yesterday the completion of critical upgrades to its Hawthorne Transmission Station (TS), first commissioned more than 60 years ago. The work included replacing aging infrastructure and energizing five new transformers. Hydro One also plans to upgrade high-voltage power lines between the Hawthorne and Merivale TS. Construction is expected to begin early next year.

Federal government proposes new regulations to better protect temporary foreign workers

The federal government announced yesterday 14 regulatory amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (Temporary Foreign Workers), with three key objectives: Improving protections for temporary foreign workers by mandating employers to provide information about their rights in Canada; improving the government’s ability to prevent bad actors from participating in the program by providing authorities that will strengthen the assessment of applications; and strengthening the government’s ability to effectively conduct inspections. In addition, the Government of Canada has launched new features on Job Bank that enable temporary foreign workers to search for jobs from eligible employers.

Oshawa sets two more building records in June

Construction value issued in Oshawa remained strong last month, with the City of Oshawa setting two building records. This included the highest number of permits issued in June with 318 and having the highest number of accessory apartments issued in June with 19. Throughout June, the city issued building permits for a total of almost $55.3 million in construction value. Of that total, $50 million relates to residential construction, $2.7 million to commercial construction, $2 million to industrial construction and $621,000 to governmental/institutional construction. An additional 387 square metres of new commercial floor space was created. There were 150 new residential units consisting of 91 townhouse dwellings, 40 single-detached dwellings and 19 accessory apartments.