Best Laid Intentions

So there was the federal government and the Province of Ontario following the lead of the United States setting the example for governments to use tax funding to shore up the ailing fortunes of North American automobile producers who manufacture products inferior to their Asian competitors and whom the 2008 global financial crisis had sent reeling toward insolvency.

Well, we cannot have General Motors and Chrysler falling into bankruptcy and thousands of auto workers looking for employment in an already-stressed economy.  So through the medium of handing over a hefty amount of the federal and provincial treasury to aid the ailing car manufacturers those jobs were safeguarded.

Ford Motor Company was in better shape and there was no need to sweeten the existential pot for them.  The auto industry in Canada is hugely inter-related to that in the United States; they are the owners and we are the junior partners.  That long-standing partnership has done wonders for Canada's economy as a branch-plant of the United States.

So when corporate interests see gain elsewhere it hurts.  At one time it was more economical for the Big 3 automakers to set up factories in Canada; wages were lower, and expensive extras like health care did not need to be taken into account since Canada has universal medicare.  Unions have always been important to the auto industry workforce. 

But if you set up shop in a "right-to-work" state like newly-freed-from-union-influence-and-interference like Michigan and corporate interests are not hampered by inflated union demands operating costs for wages and benefits become far more flexible.  So the car manufacturer that didn't need government bail-out assistance has bailed out anyway. In St. Thomas, Ontario anyway.

Ford layoffs of almost two thousand workers hit hard.  Not just the employed workers, but all the spin-offs that are reliant on those wages that need a place to live, and comestibles and furniture, and dentistry for the kids, and you name it.  And joining Ford now, is General Motors, pulling out of manufacturing Camaros in Oshawa, just like St. Thomas no longer produces Crown Victorias and Grand Marquis.

Going to Michigan, another "right-to-work" state, where wages are lower and union interference is negligible-to-none.  Now all the smaller factories producing parts are left in limbo.  The smooth integration of Canadian and U.S. production is not so smooth any more.  The pain is extensive; the union claims that for every auto plant job lost, another nine sin-off jobs outside GM will be affected. 

Ontario is in pain.