Warehousing

The warehousing sector in the province of Alberta covers a diverse network of connected industries. It facilitates the warehousing and storage of goods in conjunction with the cargo transportation sector. The warehousing sector continues to grow as Canada’s trade partners continue to place a high demand on exports from Alberta.

Some key facts about this sector in the province of Alberta are*:

• makes up 5.8% of the province’s employment share
• 31% of warehousing companies have 20-99 employees
• 25% of warehousing companies have 100-500 employees
• 70% of warehouse employees are within the ages of 25-54
  

  (*Source: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey)

As part of the central Alberta industrial hub, the JEDI region has four major high-capacity highway systems and is directly on the CANAMEX Corridor, which is the central highway corridor that connects Canada, the United States and Mexico. As the most important logistic component to warehousing, this highway infrastructure provides a highly effective distribution point for goods and direct links to all the key North American highways. The JEDI region is 15 km away from the Edmonton International Airport with high capacity international cargo services and Port Alberta, a foreign trade zone (FTZ).

Because of its central location, JEDI has all the advantages that make servicing Western Canada and global locations straightforward. One of Canada’s largest home products retailers has their 750,000-square-foot distribution facility in the region, and it services all of their Western Canadian retail stores. The advantages of operating out of the JEDI region are:

• a high-volume transportation hub with high-capacity highways, rail access, air cargo access and a foreign trade zone
• a large supply of general and skilled trades labour
• lower industrial land prices