If your question is on whether Canada has done, or is doing, all the right things to secure automotive manufacturing and investment, I think Canada offers a great deal in terms of workforce, and easy access and a cooperative nature with governments and communities, but there are points that we've talked about and struggled with over the years, whether they are points of incentivizing capital investment....
Our industry has to retool every four or five years--virtually rebuild our plants from the inside out to produce a new model. It's an enormous capital investment. There are many jurisdictions in the United States, and in the world, that offer immediate return on such capital investment. For us, that's usually a negotiation.
We built Woodstock at a time when plants were being built in some of the southern states. Woodstock was well supported with a $55 million, interest-free loan and $85 million of incentive support from Canada and Ontario, in return for $1.1 billion of investment and a guarantee of maintaining 5,000 jobs--all TMMC--for seven years. We're doing that.
That investment by Canada was almost minuscule compared to the investments some of the states were willing to make in terms of property tax relief and other moneys. If the North American head office has to look around at where it's going to put its next plant, and the people are relatively equal, and the access to government is relatively equal, and it's integrated, and there's North American free trade, and there's more incentive here and less incentive there, it doesn't become a complicated decision.
I'm not saying that Canada has to do more significant incentives along the line of the States, but be aware, for our plants to stay fresh in this country, we need to train our people to a very high level so they can produce quality...and we need to have modern equipment and technology. Fresh plants, with trained people, don't get shut down, and those things need incentives.