Of course, it's impossible to measure precisely, but when we think about it internally, we think about the auto sector as comprising, directly and indirectly, probably upwards of 500,000 jobs in Canada. People usually talk about the auto sector as being concentrated in Ontario, and that's right, but really, when you include dealerships, it goes right across the country, and it's very important for small communities in Alberta, my home, and elsewhere, not just Ontario.
As for the two companies that we contributed to the restructuring of, along with our U.S. and Ontario partners, basically our contribution in the case of Chrysler was up to about $3.75 billion. Not all of that has been drawn down. They have not drawn down all of that, and they may not, so they've used less support than we actually made available.
In terms of General Motors, in U.S. dollars, our support was about $9.5 billion. That was all drawn down, but some of it has already begun to be repaid. The company has stated publicly that they're looking to completely repay the loan portion by this summer. Now, there's still investment in equity, of course, but I think it's safe to say that our initial goal, which was to prevent the collapse of the whole sector, has been accomplished, and we are starting to see some repayment of our loans.
We monitor very closely the two companies that the government invested in. We meet with them monthly. I met with Mr. Marchionne, the head of Chrysler, two days ago in Detroit. I think it's fair to say that the dealers.... Earlier this week, I attended a large conference in Detroit with parts manufacturers from both sides of the border. The mood is certainly improving. It got a very big turnout, with over 500 different parts manufacturers attending.
The other thing that's encouraging is that sales in North America are coming back. Canada's sales are pretty strong now, but the U.S. is starting to come back. I visited the Chrysler minivan plant in Windsor, and they are well on their way to implementing the Fiat world-class manufacturing system. I talked not just to the management, but also to workers in the plant, and they're very positive. I think that's pretty encouraging to us.
Just as some indicators, for example, Chrysler minivan now has 85% of the minivan sales in Canada, so it's very strong. They also have some new models coming out. The Jeep Grand Cherokee will be out in the spring, in the first indication of their renewal.
GM has been rolling out new models kind of continuously. As for the models that are constructed in Canada, for example, like the Equinox and Traverse constructed at the CAMI plant, the production in Oshawa, they are among the strongest sellers for GM in North America.
There's still a lot of restructuring to do, but so far, so good. I have to say that I'm pretty encouraged about this. One of the things Mr. Marchionne said in his speech to the parts manufacturers a couple of nights ago was that he was bound to pay the governments back and return himself to a full private sector company.
