Ford picks BlackBerry workers, invests $900M in Canada
Ford plans to invest $900 million in its plants in Canada and for a new research and engineering center in Canada, showing that despite President Trump’s call for more U.S. investment, the automaker is not going to neglect its foreign operations.
Ford said it has already hired about 400 engineers who previously worked for Canada’s BlackBerry, once known for smartphones and now a leading auto industry supplier of operating systems for cars’ infotainment systems through its QNX division. About 300 of those engineers are in Ottawa and 100 are spread throughout the U.S.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ford’s decision to expand its engineering presence in Ontario is a signal that automakers see Canada as a potential source of innovation and not just automotive production.
“This is also an emotional day for me,” Trudeau told several hundred Ford workers at the company’s Essex Engine plant. He invoked the name of his father, late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, in saying “my father broke the sod and ground on this plant almost 40 years ago, in 1978, and this morning I got to hold the shovel that he used to do it.”
Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, said $451 million will go toward retooling the Windsor Engine and Essex Engine plants to prepare them for a new global engine program.
That investment will secure the future for about 500 workers.
This week, Ford said it would invest $1.2 billion at two plants in Michigan and for a new data center in the state. Trump tweeted “JOBS, JOBS, JOBS” at the news, which created 130 jobs.
In Windsor, Ford operates two engine plants — Essex Engine and Windsor Engine. The company makes a 5-liter V-8 engine at Essex Engine and a 6.8-liter V-10 engine for heavy-duty trucks and large vans at Windsor Engine.
BlackBerry stopped making its own phones last year. Its engineers have extensive experience working with QNX, the operating systems that powers Ford’s SYNC 3, Hinrichs said.