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| Chrysler Group's current Windsor assembly plant produces Canada's most popular vehicle, Chrysler's minivans. Pictured here, the 5 millionth minivan rolls off the line. (Photo: DaimlerChrysler) |
"This isn't corporate welfare. It is about how we ensure that we get our fair share of the major new investments that are taking place in one of the most critical industries anywhere in the world," Hargrove stated on Tuesday.
What would DaimlerChrysler want in order to set up shop? Zetsche wouldn't say exactly but mentioned a support package could come in the form of money, help in training and infrastructure improvements.
"We would like to be with this project in Ontario and we would like to make it feasible. If we find out that we can't, then we will look at other places," he said. "We have a favorable approach to the realization of this project in Ontario and I would be glad if we could make it feasible."
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| The 2004 Pacifica, loosely based on minivan architecture, is now being built in Windsor alongside Chrysler Group's popular people hauler. This photo shows the first Pacifica leaving the line. (Photo: DaimlerChrysler) |
Zetsche is no doubt sincere in his desire to build the new plant in Ontario. His company already has a long history of investing in the province with one assembly plant in Brampton and two in Windsor, plus a trim plant in Ajax and aluminum casting plant in Etobicoke, Ontario. Like the current DaimlerChrysler Canada manufacturing infrastructure the new plant would be important to Ontario's overall economy, not only resulting in direct employment by DaimlerChrysler but also indirect business benefiting suppliers and local merchants.
For these reasons Ontario's government is trying to do everything in its power to woo North America's 3rd largest automaker north of the border, especially considering it would be only the second new major plant in over a decade. Out of the seventeen plants built in North America since 1990 ten were in the U.S. and six in Mexico, most of which included multimillion-dollar government incentives. Just one was built in Canada.
Speaking on the subject Federal Finance Minister John Manley insisted that his government had a favorable climate for auto investment. "If they require something else, that is something for the province or the relevant (federal) ministries to have a look at to see whether it fits any of our programs," he told reporters while in Montreal recently.
That said the federal government has been under sharp scrutiny for expenditures lately, especially since the botched gun registry ordeal has been made public. Furthermore, pressure from lobby groups against individual private companies receiving millions of taxpayer dollars may sway the powers that be against supporting the DaimlerChrysler opportunity.