Amazon has announced it is constructing five additional facilities across Metro Vancouver, including a 450,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art fulfillment centre at the Port of Vancouver.

The global commerce giant says the new centres – including one which recently opened in Langley Township – will create a total of 2,000 jobs. The facilities also include a sortation centre and three neighbourhood delivery stations spread across the region.

“We’re thrilled to expand our network in British Columbia to better serve our customers while offering our employees bright, safe careers with on-the-job training and upskilling,” said Sumegha Kumar, director of Canadian customer fulfillment operations for Amazon Canada, in the announcement Friday morning.

“Our new facilities will help us meet our customers’ growing demand for great products and faster delivery times while also expanding the service and support we can provide to the thousands of local small businesses selling their products on Amazon.”

The new British Columbia facilities

The new facilities are:

– Vancouver: A 450,000-square-foot advanced robotics fulfillment centre in the Port of Vancouver will launch in late 2021. This is Amazon’s first robotics fulfilment centre in the province and it will create 1,000 jobs.

– City of Langley: A new sort centre that will open later in 2021, creating more than 500 jobs.

– Langley Township: A delivery station that celebrated its day one launch in mid-February, creating 200 jobs.

– Pitt Meadows: A delivery station will open later in 2021, creating hundreds of jobs.

– Delta: A delivery station will open later in 2021, creating hundreds of career opportunities.

Amazon says it currently employs more than 5,500 full- and part-time workers in operations, corporate and technology positions in British Columbia. It has invested more than $3 billion in the province during the past decade.

“Amazon is once again choosing to grow in Vancouver, confirming our city’s global appeal to the world’s best innovators and creators,” said Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart in the announcement. “This investment and the new 1,000 jobs that comes with it is a direct result of Vancouver’s commitment to bringing the best and brightest companies to our city.”

Amazon expanding across Canada

The new B.C. centres add to Amazon’s already extensive and ongoing expansion in several major Canadian cities.

Earlier this year it announced  a second sortation centre in Quebec, a 520,000-square-foot facility the company says will create at least 500 jobs in Coteau-du-Lac. Slated to open later this year, that centre will join a facility which opened late in 2020 in Longueuil.

The announcement also included three delivery stations to improve its last-mile distribution network: two slated to open this year in Laval at 5555 Ernest-Cormier and in Lachine at 1100 and 1200 Rue Norman; and a third scheduled to open in 2022 in Laval at 2700 Francis Hughes.

They are being added to more than a dozen existing distribution hubs across Canada in the Greater Toronto Area, Metro Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.

It is building several more including a massive highly automated, 2.8-million-square-foot hub in Ottawa which will be the country’s largest such facility. Being constructed in suburban Barrhaven by Montreal-based builder/developer Broccolini, it is Canada’s first multi-level industrial project of this scale.

In the GTA, Amazon is building a million-square-foot fulfillment centre in the east-end City of Ajax and a second 885,000-square foot-centre in Hamilton, just west of the city. Both are slated to open during 2021.