Ontario is ready to provide financial support to General Motors and Fiat Chrysler after the automakers pledged to upgrade Canadian plants as part of new labour contracts, the province’s economic minister said.
“When you’re competing in a world where jurisdictions at times are paying 100 per cent of the capital costs of assembly plants, we also have to bring something to the table in terms of incentives,” Brad Duguid, minister of economic development, told Automotive News Canada in a phone interview today.
Duguid was referring to jurisdictions like Mexico and states in the U.S. South, where governments pay large portions, although usually not all, of the capital costs associated with building new facilities.
Duguid spoke two days after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Unifor tentatively agreed to a new four-year contract, now awaiting an Oct. 16 ratification vote. GM workers ratified their new contract last month.