Ontario Pledges $27M to Back Chapman’s $200M Ice Cream Expansion

The Ontario government is pledging $27 million towards a $200 million expansion project announced by Chapman’s, Canada’s largest independent ice cream manufacturer.

Premier Doug Ford announced the funding from the government’s Invest Ontario Fund during a Sept. 19 press conference outside Chapman’s Markdale facility, describing it as a “major vote of confidence” in both Ontario’s economy and its workers.

The province’s funding is in addition to the more than $200 million that Chapman’s is providing to expand its operations and build a new facility in Markdale, a small town in Grey County located two hours northwest of Toronto. The multi-million dollar expansion will create 200 new jobs in the region, boosting the family-owned company’s workforce to more than 1,000 employees, the firm said in a Sept. 19 press release.

Ford said the provincial investment is another step in shoring up the economy at a time when the ongoing trade dispute with the United States has led to job losses.

“We’re going to continue doing whatever it takes to protect workers by cutting red tape and making Ontario the most competitive place in the G7 to invest and create jobs,” Ford said.

Chapman’s manufactures more than 200 products made exclusively with Canadian milk and cream and the upcoming expansion will add new production lines, the company said in its press release. 

The company is the largest employer in the town of roughly 1,200 people. Chapman’s COO Ashley Chapman said the new factory will be 175,000 square feet, increasing the firm’s production space by 35 percent.

“This expansion comes at a critical time for Chapman’s,” Chapman said in a statement. “The competition from multinationals has only increased in recent years and this project will help us to establish a stronger competitive ground. We are grateful for the province’s support, which has allowed us to build a bigger facility and support higher-paying jobs for our community.”

Industry Impact and Unemployment

The announcement comes as the manufacturing sector of the province grapples with the repercussions of Canada’s trade dispute with the United States.

U.S. tariffs are projected to raise Ontario’s unemployment rate in both 2025 and 2026, according to a recent report from the province’s financial watchdog. 

The Financial Accountability Officer of Ontario report forecasts that unemployment will rise to 7.8 percent by 2025 and will reach 8 percent by 2026.

“Annual employment growth is projected to slow to 0.9 percent in 2025, followed by a decline of 0.2 percent in 2026 as US tariffs result in job losses, especially in manufacturing and labour-intensive services industries,” the report said.

Canada’s unemployment rate grew 0.2 percentage points since July to 7.1 percent in August, representing a 0.5 percentage point increase since January, Statistics Canada said in its August Labour Force Survey data released Sept. 5.

The economy lost 66,000 jobs overall, largely due to a decline in part-time work. This continued the decline that began in July when Canada lost 41,000 jobs, totalling more than 100,000 job losses this summer.

The industries that experienced the most significant job losses included the professional, scientific, and technical services sector, which saw a reduction of 26,000 jobs, the transportation and warehousing sector, which lost 23,000 jobs, and the manufacturing sector, which faced a decline of 19,000 jobs.