Province, feds promise help for GM workers
Provincial and federal leaders alike conceded the futility Monday of trying to persuade General Motors to keep its Oshawa, Ont., automotive plant running beyond 2019, and instead focused on ways to ease the pain of more than 2,500 workers who could lose jobs.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford insisted Monday there was nothing his government could do to talk GM into keeping the factory open.
Ford and lawmakers in Ottawa vowed to work together to help affected workers, their families and the city — which will lose its biggest employer.
“The first thing I said was, ‘What can we do?’” Ford said Monday about his phone call with Travis Hester, the head of GM Canada. “He said, ‘The ship has already left the dock.’”
The closure of GM’s Oshawa operation, just east of Toronto, would deliver a major economic blow to the region and will be felt in Ontario and nationally.
In addition to the Oshawa plant, the automaker announced Monday it was planning to close four other plants in the United States and two overseas.
By the end of 2019, as part of a global restructuring, GM will focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he told GM’s global CEO Mary Barra that he was deeply disappointed about the closure and insisted his government would do everything possible to help laid-off auto employees and their families.
“Our hearts go out to the workers in the region affected,” Trudeau said during question period in the House of Commons, before noting his government has invested more than $5.6 billion to help the auto industry.
Over the years, billions and billions of public dollars have provided help to the sector, which federal Industry Minister Navdeep Bains says supports 500,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country.
In 2009, during the financial crisis, the federal and Ontario governments spent a combined $13.7 billion of taxpayer money to rescue GM Canada and fellow automaker Chrysler Canada from potential bankruptcy.
Bains was asked Monday by reporters whether he thought the 2009 bailout was a mistake now that one of the companies is closing a major operation. He said the 2009 decision, made by the previous Conservative government, was made because the situation was “very dire.”
Federal programs remain in place to support the auto sector. Bains pointed out the federal government’s announcement last week that it would add another $800 million over five years to its strategic innovation fund, which has provided public money to companies such as Toyota.
In its search for ways to help affected auto workers, the federal government declined to get into specifics — but insisted all options are under consideration.
“We’re very disappointed and very surprised by GM’s announcement that we learned about only yesterday,” said Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, who joined Bains at a news conference in Ottawa. “Obviously, it touches, (it) affects thousands of families in a cruel manner.”
Duclos, striking a slightly more optimistic tone, insisted Ottawa wouldn’t give up on efforts to persuade GM to stay in Oshawa because too much is at stake.
Ontario called on the federal government Monday to extend employment-insurance eligibility by five weeks to a maximum of 50 weeks for workers affected by the closing. Ford said the province will immediately bolster employment help and retraining measures.
Politicians from both the federal and Ontario governments, who have frequently clashed in public, made efforts Monday to show that when it comes to the GM matter they have, so far, set aside their differences.
“This is not a political issue, this is not about pointing fingers,” Bains said. “This is about standing up for the automotive sector, this is about standing up for the auto workers.”
Ford said he and his federal counterparts would work hand in hand.