A Norfolk County company that designs, builds and installs custom steel buildings wants to move to a new site, hire more workers, and tackle a $60-million backlog of residential and commercial orders from across North America.
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But Bill Dendekker, president of CDN Group in Delhi, needs the provincial transport ministry to OK his expansion plans.
Dendekker invited Transport Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria to tour CDN’s manufacturing plant on James Street on Wednesday and visit the site of a proposed 65,000-square-foot expansion on Highway 3 south of Delhi, just outside Gilbertville.
CDN’s operations currently spread across three sites totalling about 40,000 square feet.
If the expansion goes ahead, the company — which the Vendekker family founded in 2015 — would leave its James Street headquarters and center its operations on Highway 3.
Because the new site is on a provincial highway, the company needs the transport ministry’s approval for a permit to enlarge the entrance and allow for more truck traffic.
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With building permits and a traffic study pending, Dendekker said the company’s application appears to have stalled at the ministry level.
That delay is holding up grant money from the province and the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario to support the multimillion dollar build, as the money is contingent on a green light from the MTO.
“They’re waiting for us to be over this hurdle,” said plant manager Joel Dendekker.
The county and MPP Bobbi Ann Brady have sent letters to the transport ministry expressing their support for CDN’s expansion. Bill Dendekker hopes having the minister out for a visit will speed things up.
“It’s one thing to send the minister a piece of paper with a drawing on it and say, ‘Here’s what we want to do,’” Dendekker said.
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“For him to actually come here physically to see where we are to where we want to go, that’s really what we’re trying to achieve today. And from there, we’ll let him do what he does best.”
Expansion would mean adding a new product line and boosting a workforce that currently numbers 75 full-time employees, plus subcontractors who work exclusively for CDN, Dendekker explained.
“We’ve got almost a $60-million backlog right now, and it’s growing,” he said.
Mayor Amy Martin and councillors Mike Columbus and Chris Van Paassen were on hand to impress upon the minister the importance of keeping industry in Norfolk as a source of well-paying local employment and to diversify the tax base.
Calling the proposed expansion “a great project,” Sarkaria pledged to be “as collaborative as possible” to iron out any issues “and get development off the ground and create more jobs for the people here in the county.”
Making sure entrances and exits are safe “is just part of the planning process,” Sarkaria said.
“I’m very hopeful, and I know we’ll come to a great conclusion on that.”
JP Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
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