Letter From An Auto Worker

The Buy Domestic Campaign strategy is very simple, if foreign automakers want to sell cars in Canada they should build cars in Canada. We have been losing good manufacturing jobs by the thousands over the last few years, to foreign countries where wages are significantly less. Most also have weaker health and safety regulations and are less environmentally friendly.

Simply put, if we buy the cars that are built domestically, and foreign automakers want to earn profits in Canada let's have them manufacture in Canada so we all can reap the benefit of taxes and wages that will build hospitals, schools and roads in this country.

"Support us, We support you" is the slogan of the "Buy Domestic" campaign and is right on the money. If Canadians were loyal to the Domestic Auto Industry, there would be more good paying jobs which would in turn would supply more spin-off jobs and a stronger economy. Foreign automakers would have to realize that if they want to sell and do business in Canada they have to build plants in Canada.

Just remember we used to make products like appliances, televisions and clothing in Canada. Where are those now? Do we want to let are auto industry fade away too? What kind of economy will we have after its gone?

The Following article was taken from U.S. News in December 2003 and confirms that we need to educate the public about the future of the auto industry in Canada and that we must act now.

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian auto industry, will face plant closures and lost business over the next few years unless government and industry work together to attract investment, a spokesman for country's auto parts industry warned on Wednesday. "If we don't make changes it will be in trouble. We have about a year or two to act, but if we don't act we will be in trouble," Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association president Gerald Fedchun told Reuters.
Fedchun said car and parts manufacturers, as well as unions, governments and academia, must come together to improve the outlook of an auto parts industry that has seen sales slip from a high of C$36 billion ($27 billion) in 2000 to C$34 billion in 2002.
A 21-page policy paper unveiled by the association on Wednesday called for investment in research programs in the auto sector as well as upgraded infrastructure such as improved border crossings into the United States, where most of the parts flow.
Fedchun warned that without the added investment, the country will see further job losses and plants closures as companies are lured away by rich incentives offered in regions such as the southern U.S. states or Mexico.
" The industry has generated an awful lot of revenue and prosperity in Ontario, and Canada in general, but there are structural changes going on in the industry that we cannot cope with by ourselves," Fedchun said.
By working together with the unions, with governments and with academia we can change the structures that are needed to keep the industry prosperous," he said.
Ontario, the center of the country's auto sector, has lost out to locations further south that offered cash incentives or tax breaks to attract investments.
Of 17 new North American auto plants built since 1990, just one was in Canada. Six were in Mexico, the rest were in the United States, with seven of those in the South.
Canada faces the prospect of losing some large assembly plants, although it is also vying for new business including new plants being considered by Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) .
Announced closures in the past year included DaimlerChrysler's (DCX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (DCXGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) Pillette Road plant in Windsor, Ontario, and Ford Motor Co.'s (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) truck plant in Oakville, Ontario.
($1=$1.31 Canadian)