It’s another blow to the manufacturing sector in the Ottawa Valley, as Rose Integration is set to shut down.
The tool and die shop opened in Carleton Place in the early 1980s and has created items such as military and aerospace parts, employing hundreds of people from the region.
“We were pretty devastated,” said Brooke McClinchey, who has been a machinist at Rose Integration for 22 years.
“Being with one company for over 20 years, it creates a family atmosphere,” he said.
McClinchey says 52 people are set to be laid off over the coming weeks and months.
“Some of the employees have been told different dates, but me particularly, I’m probably looking at two months.”
Rose Integration president Tom Neilson said the business has been sold to a new owner, who is choosing to close the facility.
In a statement to CTV News, Neilson wrote, “When you are given an opportunity to buy or sell a company, you have to make a decision, and mine was to sell.”
Employment lawyer Alex Lucifero with Samfiru Tumarkin LLP says some employees at Rose Integration have contacted his office.
“For the vast majority of employees, it did come out of the blue,” Lucifero said.
“These people are going to be out there now looking for new employment in increasingly difficult job markets with less of those opportunities available.”
The announcement comes not long after the news that fellow manufacturer Arnprior Aerospace will be closing its doors in March. Between the two locations, the Ottawa Valley is losing 123 manufacturing jobs.
“That’s what it’s come to,” said Carleton Place Coun. Linda Seccaspina.
“But that really upsets me because it’s taken a job away from this town and probably other towns too. We’re not the only ones.”
After a career of working in the tool and die trade, McClinchey is hoping to find a new spot in the industry, possibly in sales.
“This shop, this industry paid for my children,” he said. “It gave us a life.”