LILLEY: Ford auto announcement a building block for a new industry

Just about two years ago, if you had asked if the auto industry had a future in Ontario, the answer would have been no.

It was in late November 2018 that General Motors announced it would close their Oshawa assembly plant and end more than a century of production in that city.

Ontario hadn’t seen a new plant in 15 years and the prospects of many existing ones were bleak.

Today, it’s a different story thanks to the formal announcement on Thursday that Ford Canada was investing $1.8 billion in their Oakville assembly plant to build the next generation of electric vehicles. Starting in 2024, the Oakville plant will transform from an internal combustion engine plant to a battery electric vehicle plant.

The move was heralded by the politicians on hand as great for the future, though for quite different reasons.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mostly praised the move as one that moves Canada closer to a green economy while Premier Doug Ford mostly praised the prospects for jobs.

The announcement may fill both their desires but it does much more than that.

This announcement sets the stage for a further expansion of the auto sector in Ontario as the whole industry moves towards electric and other low or zero emission vehicles. With Ford’s seal of approval, and massive investment, Ontario’s industry can now assure other manufacturers that the province is here to stay and grow.

And why shouldn’t it be?

The Great Lakes region that Southern Ontario is part of has been the manufacturing heartland of the continent for more than a century for some very good reasons. Multi-modal transportation including the inland seaway, usable ports and now highway and air transportation.

We’ve also got the inputs needed here from steel in Hamilton to the hundreds of parts suppliers dotting towns all along the 401. Now with the emergence of electric cars as a real force we also have the raw materials to make batteries here.

Cobalt, nickel and lithium are readily mined in this province already and the rare earth minerals under the Ring of Fire are a resource as yet untouched. All of this makes Ontario a place to make not just cars but specifically, electric cars and the parts that go with them.

International automakers are looking for places to expand be it Tata in India, Renault in France or the many emerging Chinese players. One company, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Company, is already making electric cars in China with a homegrown Canadian hero.

BAIC partnered with Magna to build an all-electric SUV crossover called the Alpha-T that has a range of more than 500 km on a single charge. Like they do for BMW in Austria, Magna oversees production from end to end.

Why couldn’t they do that here when BAIC looks to start selling and building in the North American market?

A few years ago the answer was clear, Ontario had become an uncompetitive jurisdiction.

In 2015, Sergio Marchione, the late president of Fiat Chrysler, told then premier Kathleen Wynne flat out that the province had become too expensive and was driving away investment. Over the last two years the Ford government has worked hard to change that by reducing red tape and unnecessary costs.

The announcement from GM two years ago could have been the start of the end of the auto industry in this province, instead it was a wakeup call. Let’s use the Ford announcement as a building block for a bigger, better industry in the future.

 blilley@postmedia.com