This is Windsor's situation: It is represented by two of the most powerful cabinet ministers in the Ontario government and yet it hopes an airlift of its workers to Western Canada will help stop its downward spiral in fortunes.
These haven't been good years for the city, which has thrived and suffered on the cyclical fortunes of the auto industry. It has lost at least 10,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001 as it endures what Mayor Eddie Francis characterizes as "a harder, more intense and more difficult slowdown" than in any other Ontario city.
The announcement this week that General Motors Co. of Canada will close its transmission plant and put 1,400 workers on the street was a cruel blow, coming as it did just six weeks after Ford Canada said it would reopen its Essex engine plant and bring back 300 workers.
Mr. Francis, who sees challenges where others see problems, was disheartened by the GM news. "Every time we seem to be making progress by taking a few steps forward, announcements like this really, really set us back," he said.
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But the mayor said in an interview this week that he remains confident that Windsor can rebound because it recognizes that it has to deal with a structural, not merely a cyclical, situation. "We're dealing with the harsh economic realities of global competition and we're dealing with the Big Three that have their own struggles," he said, referring to the decline of the auto makers based across the Detroit River.
The city's mantra now stresses the need for diversification away from the motor vehicle. Mr. Francis and the local MPPs, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello, mimic each other in listing local companies that prospered on automotive work but that are now serving the aerospace industry, the U.S. military or Alberta's oil sands.
The push away from dependency on the auto has been under way for about four years, more or less the time in which the Liberals have governed. The previous Conservative government wasn't inclined to help the auto industry - and had little interest in helping a region that elected opposition Liberals - but the McGuinty government has invested about $1.5-billion in the city (including $400-million for an expansion of its casino and a $24-million medical school at the University of Windsor).
Mr. Francis believes the city is midway through its transition to becoming what he calls "the intellectual capital of the automotive industry." The trouble is the rate of diversification can't keep up with the plant closings. And as Mr. Francis knows, about 65 older, industrial U.S. cities are attempting to remake themselves. That's a lot of competition. As Buffalo found 25 years ago, just Talkin' Proud isn't enough.
Which brings us to the mayor's "long-distance commuting program" that is a key part of his "Jobs Today" strategy. He has been lobbying western mayors and air carriers for help in crafting a plan that would allow workers to travel weekly on subsidized, direct flights from Windsor to jobs in Alberta and Saskatchewan. This would keep families in the city until the local economy rebounds.
Mr. Francis said he only recently found out that legions of Newfoundlanders fly to Alberta on flights paid for by labour-hungry companies in Fort McMurray. He's not fazed by the comparison.
"That's what we want to replicate," he said. "Because, at the end of the day, it's important for us to keep the residents and families here. The last thing you want is a population decline."
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