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DARTMOUTH — American e-commerce giant Amazon held a groundbreaking ceremony in the Halifax area Wednesday for a massive new warehouse that will use robots and more than 1,000 full-time employees to fulfil orders.
The online retailer said the warehouse in Dartmouth, N.S., will cover more than 200,000-square metres in the Burnside industrial park. It’s slated to open in 2029.
Brooks Barnett, head of economic development for Amazon Canada, declined to say how much the project will cost.
He said Halifax’s port, growing customer base and openness to investment were reasons Amazon chose the area for the new facility.
Barnett said the new site should offer more products and speed up deliveries for customers in the region, but he would not commit to same-day delivery.
“The second you click ‘buy,’ a robot in this building will be moving to satisfy your order,” Barnett said, adding that the facility will complement Amazon’s existing Dartmouth delivery facility.
Barnett said employee wages will start at $26 per hour. Benefits will include health, dental and a retirement savings plan.
He declined to say if the new site will replace a warehouse in Quebec that the company shuttered in January 2025 after employees there formed a union.
“All I’ll say is that we respect our employees’ right to have their voice heard and to make whatever decisions they want around unionization. But today we’re really talking about a new investment here in this region,” he said.
About 240 Amazon workers at the company’s warehouse in Laval, Que., unionized in May 2024, becoming the first of the tech company’s Canadian warehouses to do so.
The company had challenged the union drive before the province’s labour tribunal, but their case was rejected in October 2024. The tribunal’s ruling was upheld by Quebec Superior Court last month.
Amazon also faced anti-union allegations at a now-closed warehouse in the Montreal borough of Lachine. In August 2024, the labour tribunal ordered Amazon to stop interfering in union affairs and pay the union $30,000.
In January 2026, Amazon Canada announced it would close all seven of its Quebec warehouses within two months, eliminating 1,700 permanent jobs and 250 temporary ones.
At the time, the company said the move was aimed at cutting costs and improving service, and it insisted the closures had nothing to do with unionization.
Amazon isn’t the only major U.S. tech firm growing its operations in Nova Scotia. Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic has signed a 20-year lease to set up in a proposed $10-billion data centre in Cape Breton, slated to open late next year.
Meanwhile, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said there’s no government money in the Amazon project. While the province does have economic development programs that the Jeff Bezos-led company can apply for, Houston said Amazon is driving the investment on its own.
“This is a company investing in our province, like the data centre as well. That’s not government money either,” the premier told reporters Wednesday. “So these are good statements from international companies about the prospects that they see for Nova Scotia.”
Barnett declined to comment on how Democrats taking control of the U.S. Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections could impact Amazon’s business, which has sought close ties to U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, in his second term.
In his first term, Trump accused Bezos of using The Washington Post, which he owns, to persuade politicians not to tax Amazon. Trump also criticized the Post and Bezos over coverage of his campaign and presidency.
In 2019, Amazon sued after the Pentagon awarded a $10-billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft, alleging Trump’s interference harmed Amazon’s chances of winning.
Both sides have been friendlier since Trump won the 2024 election. In December 2024, Amazon said it planned to donate US$1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. The company also and said it would stream the event on Prime Video, a separate in-kind donation worth another US$1 million.
The following month, Amazon acquired the licensing rights for a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump. In March 2025, it began streaming the first seven seasons of Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice.”
In November 2025, Amazon was among the 37 donors the government said were helping to pay for Trump’s US$300-million White House ballroom.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2026.
— With files from Michael MacDonald and The Associated Press.
Devin Stevens, The Canadian Press
