Giant grocery retailer Loblaw is promising to create up to 20,000 new Canadian jobs when it launches an ambitious expansion plan this year.

Loblaw has announced it is going to build some 50 new stores and renovate about 150-existing ones.  It says when all is said and done, there will be 5,000 new store employees with some 15,000 construction jobs created in the process.

The expansion will include both grocery stores and Shoppers Drug Mart locations but Loblaw isn’t releasing information on where the new stores will be located.  The price tag is estimated at $1.3 billion.  The company will invest about $1 billion with Choice Properties REIT contributing the balance.