Talks tried to prevent Magna’s departure

July 8, 2015 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Magna International took the first steps in taking their headquarters and consolidated operations to King Township last month, a multi-million dollar proposal that is expected to bring hundreds of jobs to Aurora’s neighbouring municipality.

It was a proposal that was, of course, warmly received by King Mayor Steve Pellegrini and members of King Council, but according to Aurora’s municipal staff, it was a move that long-running behind-the-scenes talks at Town Hall tried to prevent.

After The Auroran first reported Magna’s pending departure from Aurora in May, Mayor Geoff Dawe said confirmation of the move had just arrived at Town Hall and conversations looking to the future would be welcome.

“I had some brief conversations with the folks at Magna a number of months ago and we talked about how they were starting to run out of room at their location,” said Mayor Dawe at the time, noting the building on Wellington Street East was “challenging” to operate.

According to Anthony Ierullo, Aurora’s Manager of Long Range and Strategic Planning, the Town was “quite in the loop” about Magna’s intentions before the announcement was circulated.

“Conversations with Magna have actually been going on long before the decision for them to leave was made public, so we were quite in the loop about these discussions through the Mayor’s office for quite some time,” said Mr. Ierulllo at Aurora’s Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) meeting. “We did do what we could [to prevent them from leaving], but the decision for Magna to locate where they have is a corporate one, not necessarily tied to anything the Town had direct control over.

“We certainly tried, and the Mayor’s Office was very active in trying to understand the rationale behind the move and trying to encourage them to stay. None of us would like to see a large employer like Magna leave under any circumstances.”

The comments came at a contentious meeting at EDAC where members demanded more answers on what the Town of Aurora is doing to encourage and foster the retention of large-scale employers like Magna. This was of particular concern to committee member – and former councillor – Don Constable, who worked with Magna and its founder, Frank Stronach, to bring the company to Aurora.

Mr. Constable said it was “mind blowing” how Aurora could “allow Magna to just take off and go to King.” While Councillors Paul Pirri and John Abel countered that there is very little one can do to stop a company from looking – and moving – elsewhere, Mr. Constable said if the Town was “better connected” with the business community they would have been aware of Magna’s intentions before the lease on their Aurora headquarters was up in 2017.
But, Magna’s move is a done deal and from a municipal business perspective, the next conversations to take place should focus on the future of Magna’s expansive corporate offices, which are currently owned by the real estate income trust Granite.

“We have reached out [to Granite] and we essentially have a three-year window to work with them on either a tenant or a plan with the building and we’re going to be proactive on that,” said Mr. Ierullo. “We have…talked about our next steps [with the Mayor’s Office] and we agreed that reaching out to Granite to discuss where that building goes moving forward and how we can assist with what their plans are. Ultimately it is their decision what they do with the building, [but it is a question of] how can we fit into that and advance that?”