Auto Manufacturers Fighting to Keep Jobs in Ontario

Friday, 7 March 2025 11:11

Photo Credit: CAMI Assembly page on GM Canada website, gm.ca

Over 40,000 work for automotive plants and parts manufacturers in Ontario.

INGERSOLL - The heads of Ontario's automotive plants have met in London to discuss short and long term plans to keep jobs on our side of the border.

US President Donald Trump has paused most of the tariffs against Canada and Mexico until April 2nd and he has been encouraging automakers to shift their production to the United States.

Mike Van Boekel is the Plant Chair for Unifor Local 88 at CAMI in Ingersoll. He says if anyone tries to move their equipment elsewhere, Ontario's automotive industry will act accordingly.

"As far as we're concerned, we've been making vehicles in Ontario for over 100 jobs, so Trump is wrong and they're not his jobs. We do sell over two million vehicles per year in Canada and we import at lot more than we export, so those jobs have been here over 100 years and we're not ready to give them up."

About 1,350 people work at CAMI, which assembles electric delivery vans. The automotive plants and parts manufacturers across the province employ close to 40,000.

Van Boekel says we need to support local jobs as much as we can.

"We've got Toyota and Honda, they are not unionized but they provide thousands of jobs in Ontario and they sell in Canada. We would love to see the government step in and say if you're going to sell in Canada, you have to produce in Canada."

Van Boekel says President Trump should do the same thing because over 5 million vehicles are imported to North America from overseas each year and over 4.5 million of those vehicles go to the US.

You can tell where a vehicle was manufactured by checking the VIN number. If it starts with the number 2, the vehicle was made in Canada. Vehicles made in the US start with a 1, 4, or 5 and vehicles made in Mexico start with a 3. Vehicles made in other countries will often start with a letter. For example a vehicle made in Japan will start with a J, a vehicle made in South Korea will start with a K, and a vehicle made in Germany will start with a W.

Van Boekel would like to thank Ontario Premier Doug Ford for all of his efforts during this trade war.

"He has really gone after Trump and I think it's fantastic. I don't think we can just sit back so what he's doing is fantastic and he has our full support."