TORONTO : Despite the latest round of General Motors layoffs and slumping North American car sales, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty predicted the province will get a new auto assembly plant and the high-paying jobs that go with it.
McGuinty said Ontario is still willing to invest directly with automakers to secure jobs even though GM plans to eliminate nearly 1,000 workers at a plant in Oshawa, Ont., in which the province invested $235 million.
"It's no secret now we're talking to Fiat," McGuinty said. "We're talking to India, we're talking to China, to folks in Germany. We will land a new auto assembly plant here in Ontario, and we will create more jobs, and all kinds of spinoff jobs."
McGuinty defended the Liberal government's program to provide direct cash incentives to attract new manufacturing facilities�while criticizing the federal government's preferred policy of corporate tax cuts�and said he doesn't feel betrayed when companies that received taxpayers' money later announce layoffs.
"Every contract that we've entered into has been honoured by all of our auto sector partners," he said.