Toyota To Build 100,000 Vehicles Per Year In Ontario

I thought this bit was a little harsh:
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In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Mr. Fedchun said.
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Ouch!


It's good though. More skilled work, more employment. And other companies may follow Toyota's lead.


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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

This shows that the educational system has been working well and does not need major overhauls as suggested by some private interest "institutes". Provincial governments, take note.
Talus

Ps. I hope Frank isn't too upset about these jobs coming here as I remember him saying. "We don't want to go there."
perhaps he didn't mean it that way.

When do the protests start? Didn't Canadians want to sign on to the Kyoto accords? Are we not hypocrites for allowing cars to be built here? Are Canadians just a bunch of preachy saps who are unwilling to put their money where their mouth is?

ha hahahaha. Thanks for the laugh.

Yes, the protests will be in Vancouver in September. You can start walking now.


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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

<code>http://harpers.org/WeeklyReview2005-07-05.html</code> <p>Toyota announced that it would open a new $800 million plant in Ontario. The company turned down hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies in the United States because, when compared to Canadians, U.S. workers are too hard to train, often illiterate, and expensive to insure</p> Our current Liberal regime (and it's potential successor the - gasp! - Conservatives) with their harmonization policies, will doubtless ensure that THIS playing field will soon become level............... <p>---<br>RickW

Sure screwed that one up.............<br />
<a href="http://harpers.org/WeeklyReview2005-07-05.html">http://harpers.org/WeeklyReview2005-07-05.html</a><p>---<br>RickW

Protest one of the only car companies who bucked the trend and started making fuel-efficient hybrids while everyone else laughed and kept on churning out the overpriced, fat-ass SUVs?

Maybe we can use some of our apparently high intelligence to help Toyota fill the backlog of orders.

The key message is that Toyota, the leading car company in the world, sees productive advantage in locating where the brainpower is, not where corporate welfare is highest (the southeast U.S. "right-to-work" zones). CCCE take note, it ain't all about which community will give you the biggest tax breaks and lowest wages: trying to achieve global competitiveness using a strategy that relies on labour so cheap you have to train them using sock puppets won't work.

Excellent post! Foreign investment isn't always bad, nor are corporations always evil, nor are all cars pollution-belching SUVs.

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Every time you complain about the moderators, god kills a kitten.

It's always interesting that money going to Quebec is to satisfy the blackmailers, money going east or to the prairies is 'subsidies', while in Ontario it's 'investment'. 15% of the cost of this project comes from both federal and provincial governments. Canadians are essentially paying to ensure there's no place to live but southern ontario:


"Similarly, Emmerson said Ottawa is looking to help out industries that create "clusters" of jobs around them - such as in aerospace, shipbuilding, telecommunications and forestry - where supply bases build around a large manufacturer."

Of course we know what that means, anybody who lives in a forestry based environment knows damn well the feds do nothing for that industry, and as New Brunswickers know, they likewise have no interest in maintaining shipbuilding. Telecommunications largely meant Nortel and other Ottawa and Toronto based industries and aerospace means southern Ontario and Quebec. Tell me again why anybody outside Ontario wants to be in this country?

"Canadians are essentially paying to ensure there's no place to live but southern ontario: "

I think you just described the root cause of 'Western Alienation'.

Although Saskatchewan does have a spiffy new high energy linear accellerator. . .

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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

It's not linear, it's circular. I got a tour of the Synchrotron a couple years back, and it is in fact nifty.

There's not so many manufacturing industries elsewhere, but there's still industry and new investment in other provinces. I'm always surprised when the 'west' completely ignores the economic impact of Vancouver and Calgary, especially in the tech sector.

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Every time you complain about the moderators, god kills a kitten.

A circle is a special case of a line, just as a square is a special case of rectangle. Or something like that I've heard it's pretty cool.

I'm not saying we're backwards WRT economic growth, I'm just empasizing that if Ontairo gets some handouts to improve the job market and technology sectors, it would be nice if the West got something similar. With the huge jumps in technologies out here, such as GPS in Calgary and NanoTech in Edmonton, it would be nice if a few billion were invested in something Canada lacks on the tech side; say a billion or two for a semiconductor manufacturing plant, or NanoTech solar cell manufacturing plant . . .


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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

I can't speak for the west, but the maritimes gets 38 million per year, per province, although that is all the money ACOA gets, which means it also covers salary,etc. This deal in ontario is three times more than that all in one shot. I'm also pretty sure this money is outside the Fednor money allocated per year. That 38 million covers ALL federal industry investment, even currently active ones. Although I am no fan of nuclear power or the functions of NB Power, it's interesting that this 'crown corporation' goes begging while Lepreau crumbles but the welcome mat is laid out for Toyota.

I also saw an american automotive website that maintained that the subsidies were actually closer to 20% of the cost, 100 million out of 600 million total. Which means canada was very much playing the 'subsidy' game, and playing it quite well. It's doubtful many of those southern states could scramble that kind of cash, seeing as how most states are practically bankrupt thanks to their fed.

No doubt proximity to their current plant played a role (but there are plants in San Antonio as well), also no doubt there's a more frosty relationship since the government sued them several years ago. The claim about the lack of literacy seems to merely indicate that going south meant Toyota was thinking of taking advantage of the cheap labour since obviously they aren't willing to pay higher wages for more competitive workers. In Canada we are pretty much as desparate as any in the states.

I wouldn't bash them too much, I"m unaware of what they 'take out' of our system, but they are considered 'good jobs' although I hear that from people at the bottom rung of employment spectrum. I would easily buy a Toyota before another car, however, this deal puts them in the same blackmailing group as the big three.

"it's interesting that this 'crown corporation' goes begging while Lepreau crumbles but the welcome mat is laid out for Toyota."

Exactally.

"The claim about the lack of literacy seems to merely indicate that going south meant Toyota was thinking of taking advantage of the cheap labour since obviously they aren't willing to pay higher wages for more competitive workers. . . I wouldn't bash them too much."

My comments aren't meant to bash. Having called several Japanese people friends, and spending time getting to know their culture, I only meant to point out that the comment about illiterate workers was quite harsh.

Japanese are very proud and conversely humble about their education and accomplishments. For the CEO (or whomever) of a large Japanese Corporation (especially from the 'Watanabe' clan, a very old and proud family) to point out and draw attention to the fact that literacy was a factor in this decision, means it was a very major factor. The company was humiliated by the fact that their workers could not read, and humiliation is worse than death to a proud Japanese worker.

"I would easily buy a Toyota before another car"

I wouldn't. I would rather buy a Canadian car, but the auto pact saw to that (see: Bricklyn). Instead, I have to settle for a Canadian *built* car, and many of the good ones are built by Canadian labour.

Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, Ford Crown Victoria, Lincon Town Car - to name a few. I couldn't see myself driving a Rav-4, although I did own a Suzuki Sidekick for a while.





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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill