On Nov. 26, you might have thought it was the end of the world in Canada, with the announcement of the impending closure of the General Motors Oshawa Car Assembly Plant.
And in a sense, it very well may be, when it comes to car manufacturing in Canada. This closure will mean General Motors will have only one plant left in Canada. Ford only has one left, and Chrysler has two, out of the companies formerly known as the 鈥淏ig Three.鈥� Indeed, Toyota, with two plants, will soon outnumber GM in Canada, with two plants. Honda has one.
If we keep hollowing out our manufacturing base, there won鈥檛 be much left.
It was weird hearing this announcement, as just a few days before I watched former Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaking to Ben Shapiro for an hour. The most interesting part was his discussion of bailing out the auto industry. He absolutely did not want to do it, but with half a million jobs on the line, he really had no choice, so he bailed them out.
And that might be the part that stings most of all. Canada and Ontario laid it on the line for GM nearly 10 years ago, when the global financial crisis took it, and Chrysler, into bankruptcy protection. And this is how they repay us? Thanks a lot.
GM is also closing four plants in the U.S., in Michigan, Ohio and Maryland. One of those cars being cut is the Impala, made in Oshawa.
That鈥檚 a key point, because just a few months ago, when NAFTA negotiations were getting heated, Trump said, 鈥淥ff the record, Canada鈥檚 working their ass off. And every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala.鈥�
Now GM is killing that very car that we struggled so hard to save. How many concessions did we make in NAFTA Mark II to save this? And why didn鈥檛 they work?
We, in Western Canada, have to look at this GM closure from a broader perspective 鈥� our perspective. The land of the living skies and wild rose country perspective.
A few weeks ago, Bombardier, in Quebec, announced a few thousand layoffs. Now GM in Ontario is laying off around 2,900. These will, of course, lead to many times that in the suppliers for those plants. But what about the tens of thousands of people in the oilpatch who have lost their jobs? And the thousands who have never been able to get back to where they were in 2014?
The job losses coming to Quebec and Ontario are a drop in the bucket compared to what has happened in Alberta since 2014.
How much attention will the Quebec and Ontario layoffs get, compared to our own?
Last week the headlines were of a national crisis in the oilpatch. Our Western Canadian Select heavy oil is next to worthless. This is compounded by the fact even the good stuff, West Texas Intermediate, lost nearly a third of its value in recent weeks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to Calgary and delivered a big fat zero in help. Okay, maybe I鈥檓 wrong on that. He spent $4,500,000,000 on a pipeline that has yet to be built. Still seems like a lot of zeros to me.
Wake up, Prime Minister! Our economy is falling apart at the seams, and this is happening during 鈥済ood times.鈥� What happens when things are bad?
Maybe that won鈥檛 be that long off, if things keep going this way. In the meantime, you鈥檝e squandered billions running up huge deficits, leaving us no fiscal room to maneuver when times get worse.
If General Motors is going to stop making most of its sedan car models, and stick with SUVs, crossovers and trucks, there may not be a lot a government, any government, can do about it. Ironically named Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he asked GM if there was anything could do, and the answer was no. It sounded like he was alluding to yet another bailout, and they declined.
But there are things we can do when it comes to the oilpatch. The first thing is to kill Bill C-69, the 鈥渨e shall never build anything again in Canada bill.鈥�
Next, remove the oil tanker ban off the northern B.C. coast, right now, and re-assert the previous approval for Enbridge to build Northern Gateway, and plead with them to start moving dirt.
Then get the Trans Mountain expansion going, not slow-walking it to the door.
Along the way, reverse the ridiculous emissions evaluations for Energy East, and get it going, too.
At the same time, build rail cars and locomotives, and start hiring engineers and conductors, because there鈥檚 no way any of these pipelines will be ready soon enough.
Our economic ship is hitting the rocks really hard right now. We need our federal government to make some definitive, positive action to save it.
If Ontario and Quebec get more attention than our oil crisis right now, there鈥檚 going to be a lot more disunity in this country than it can bear.
Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
