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Ontario mayors welcomed yesterday's auto announcement but hoped the much-needed aid doesn't idle too long so it's stalled out by the new year.
"This has finally happened," Oshawa Mayor John Gray told the Sun yesterday just after the announcement. "I wished it happened a while ago because it would have lifted a lot of the uncertainty. They have done the right thing and they are trying to preserve our share of automotive production in North America."
Mayors across Ontario have been advocating hard for a lifeline to be tossed to the sinking industry. The fear they have long advocated is, if the auto industry collapses, few if any municipalities will be unaffected.
Gray and Woodstock, Ont. Mayor Michael Harding, co-chairmen of the Ontario Mayors for Automotive Investment--a coalition representing more than 35 communities that includes Toronto -- called the announcement good news.
Yesterday, Gray said he wants to see more details on car purchasing incentives the government plans to roll out.
"Even folks who want to buy a car haven't been able to get their hands on credit quite as easily (due to the credit crunch) so that's going to help as well," Gray said.
Toronto Mayor David Miller applauded the deal because it takes positive steps to keep people working and to modernize the industry.
"It's good news for us, lots more to do, but it's good that they are getting support," Miller told the Sun last night.
Miller recently hosted a meeting of the automotive mayors that urged both the provincial and federal government to come to the table with a deal for the automakers.
"The impact across Ontario, if there wasn't support for the automakers suffering from the credit crisis, would have been devastating," he said. "If Oakville, Oshawa and all the Magna plants around Toronto run into trouble it hurts us as well ... there is about 22,000 directly employed in the auto parts industry within Toronto and their jobs would be gone overnight if the industry became bankrupt."
"There is now grudging realization that we had better be at the plate when it comes to manufacturing and auto in particular ... we do not want to have all those jobs repatriated into the United States," Harding said.