Here's the related Site Selection article.
Good on EcDev (I'm confident they're making hay while the sun shines) but there are obviously a thousand parents. The article might have been more generous with its praise of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, which has played a part (eg.
investing $43.6 million at ArcelorMittal Dofasco in January). It also elides
the double-edged sword of government incentives, for example, as well as the nuances of the employment market (eg. Max Aicher bought a mill off US Steel that had employed 300, rehired 100 of those when it fired up the facility in November, then idled 40 in July).
Nitpicky, true.
Pity, though, that the list of projects isn't made available. After all, EcDev’s own year-end numbers showed institutional investments markedly up ($188.23m), commercial marginally up ($139.75m) and industrial ($163.63m) and other/misc ($13.78m) down: $505.4m non-residential investments in 2010 vs $410.2m non-residential investments in 2009, a year-over-year increase beefed up by a $102m institutional gain. In view of that fact (and a category as broad as “new corporate investment”), it'd be interesting to define the role of major public entities like Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation or the Corporation of the City of Hamilton.