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TORONTO — — Despite the latest round of General Motors Corp. layoffs and slumping North American car sales, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty predicted Tuesday the province will get a new auto assembly plant and the high-paying jobs that go with it.
Mr. McGuinty said Ontario is still willing to invest directly with auto makers to secure jobs even though GM plans to eliminate nearly 1,000 workers at a plant in Oshawa, Ont., in which the province invested $235-million.
"It's no secret now we're talking to Fiat," Mr. McGuinty said. "We're talking to India, we're talking to China, to folks in Germany.
"We will land a new auto assembly plant here in Ontario, and we will create more jobs, and all kinds of spinoff jobs."
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
General Motors
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Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory accused Mr. McGuinty of using the promise of a major new investment to hide the fact the government has no real policy to stop the loss of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs.
"This is again an attempt on his part to divert attention away from the fact that thousands and thousands of jobs are being lost while he stands by and does nothing except to say, 'Hope for the best, we're going to get a new plant,"' Mr. Tory said.
"The issue is about all the jobs that are being lost in the auto industry and elsewhere ... and McGuinty just doesn't get it."
Mr. McGuinty defended the Liberal government's program to provide direct cash incentives to attract new manufacturing facilities — while criticizing the federal government's preferred policy of corporate tax cuts — and said he doesn't feel betrayed when companies that received taxpayers' money later announce layoffs.
"Every contract that we've entered into has been honoured by all of our auto sector partners," he said.
"Those investments which still keep us at the forefront as North America's No. 1 auto producer did not preclude the possibility of some job losses along the way. But we will continue to find ways to partner with the auto sector. If we can do more with GM, we'd be delighted to do that."
The New Democrats said the government should have ensured it got firm job guarantees whenever it invested taxpayers' money into an auto plant, while Mr. Tory complained the opposition parities have never seen the contracts.
"What we have never seen from any government, including this one, is an accounting of what the clauses were that were in the agreement that dealt with the maintenance of jobs in Ontario in return for the money," Mr. Tory said.
"I think the people of Ontario who put substantial sums of money into these plants are owed an explanation as to what the agreements provided for."
Economic Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello said it's important to note GM isn't moving jobs to another jurisdiction, but is trimming its work force because of slumping sales.
"The first question is, how does it reflect the contract that's been signed in the past with GM?" Ms. Pupatello said before a Liberal caucus meeting.
"We can't control the sales figures and we know that affects production, but no production is being moved from Ontario, and that's really important."
Ms. Pupatello said the layoffs announced by GM will be top of mind when provincial negotiators talk with any auto makers about future investments.
"It does give us a bit of a harder line when we're having discussions with these companies, because we have to be very certain that we have as much guarantee as is possible in this environment for jobs for auto workers," she said.
"The language that we talk about with these companies involves moving of production out to another jurisdiction, and that certainly has not happened."
GM Canada said Monday that about 900 hourly and 70 salaried workers are expected to lose their jobs at the Oshawa truck plant this summer as part of a bigger layoff of about 3,500 workers at North American plants that produce pickup trucks and big sport utility vehicles.
