Federal, provincial politicians leave door open to foreign workers' involvement in Honda deal
Parties to the massive Hon‐ da EV investment deal reached this week have tacitly acknowledged that foreign workers will be in‐ volved in setting up the proposed auto plants, while attempting to down‐ play an issue already seized upon by the federal Conservatives.
In response to questions throughout the week, federal officials, their provincial counterparts and executives for the automaker have talked about "optimizing" or "maximizing" the number of Canadian jobs - leaving the door open for foreign work‐ ers to work on facilities re‐ sulting from the historic $15billion deal.
In an interview on Rose‐ mary Barton Live that aired Sunday, Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli was more direct, say‐ ing that there would be "short-term technical ex‐ perts" brought in to install equipment and train Ontari‐ ans.
"You need the technical experts. They're going to come in - not only to help in‐ stall, but train hundreds and then thousands of the em‐ ployees on how to use the equipment - and then re‐ turn," he told CBC chief politi‐ cal correspondent Rosemary Barton.
The practice of foreign workers coming in to work on auto plants - which have received tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer support over the past several years erupted into a political issue last fall when it was revealed the NextStar battery plant in Windsor would employ a number of South Koreans. Canada's Building Trades Unions (CBTU) accused the company of sidelining local workers - which NextStar de‐ nies - and last week sent a letter asking the prime minis‐ ter to intervene.
Conservatives this week cited the NextStar case and argued the same thing could happen with Honda.
"We can't trust that his latest announcement of $5 billion in Canadian taxpayer money [to be split between the province and federal gov‐ ernments] to another large multinational corporation will be any different," said MP Rick Perkins, the Conserva‐ tives' innovation critic.
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In a statement released Friday, the Conservatives said they would bring up the issue of foreign workers in a parlia‐ mentary committee meeting scheduled for Monday.
The NDP has said it wants to see assurances that jobs and projects will stay in Canada.
"We support investments, but we want to see iron-clad guarantees where there will be good jobs for Canadians, for Quebecers," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in Mon‐ treal this week. "We want to see good jobs that are goodpaying union jobs, and we want to see the investments stay in the country."
Honda in talks with union
Jean Marc Leclerc, the head of Honda Canada, told Barton that he's reached out to the head of the CBTU to begin a discussion on jobs for Canadian workers and he hoped to reach a memoran‐ dum of understanding with them on the issue.
He told CBC Radio's The House that Honda faced a challenge in meeting produc‐ tion timelines given the cur‐ rent availability of tradespeo‐ ple in Canada.
"The more we communi‐ cate with them to say, 'Here are the timelines, here are the number of people we need to make this happen,' we will get to a very good place, I'm very confident," he said.
In another interview on The House, Industry Minister François-Philippe Cham‐ pagne downplayed the con‐ cerns about the NextStar plant, noting the foreign workers were just a small contingent of the thousands of workers to be employed there.
"We always have under‐ takings to maximize Canadi‐ an jobs in what we do. But Canadians also understand that sometimes you need to bring specialized workers in order to install some some types of machinery and equipment, and this is not new," he said.
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CBTU said in a statement released earlier this week that it welcomed both the Honda investment and the initial discussions with Hon‐ da on an MOU around Cana‐ dian workers.
In a separate interview on Rosemary Barton Live, Fi‐ nance Minister Chrystia Free‐ land also pointed to a state‐ ment by Unifor in favour of the deal.
Asked about the prospect of foreign workers involved in the plants, Freeland said she had spoken to Honda ex‐ ecutives and was aware of the talks between Honda and the union. "Both sides know how important it is for the government of Canada that there be good-paying union jobs building this project," she said.
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