146 Business View - December 2014
Ingersoll’s single largest employment entity is the
CAMI Automotive plant – an operation that’s wholly-
owned by General Motors of Canada and has a work-
force of more than 3,000. The plant opened in 1986
and ownership was shared by Suzuki through 2009,
it now manufactures the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC
Terrain crossover vehicles, producing approximately
300,000 vehicles per year for the world market.
An additional 100 people were hired by CAMI in August
and another 120 hires are planned before year’s end.
The town anticipates more companies could be on the
way that provides complementary services needed by
the plant and its just-in-time assembly/production sys-
tem.
“We have a lot of people that commute to work in In-
gersoll,” Lawson said. “And your tax base can’t survive
on residential increases alone; you need a lot of com-
mercial and industrial uses. We have a strong industri-
al tax base for our population but our further growth is
constrained by our boundaries, so our constant chal-
lenge is to be able to keep our taxes low with the small
number of people we have.”
And because the budget echoes the fact that Ingersoll
is no metropolis, fiscal prudence is vital.
Lawson said one way to compensate for perpetual
funding challenges is to make sure that when signifi-
cant projects are being handled, all necessary ele-
ments and upgrades are taken care of at the same
time; which eliminates having to go back and replace
multiple infrastructure elements separately.
For example, when significant road work is under way,
the status of underground water, storm and sanitary
sewer infrastructure are checked as well. If things
need fixing, these items are handled within the scope
of the same process.
“We do projects in synergies,” she said. “That way,
PUBLIC SECTOR
