Evidence of meeting #20 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vehicles.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
I'm giving you two minutes, but no more than that. I will cut you off after two minutes.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Okay.
I would like to continue in the same vein as my colleague Mr. Baylis, who talked about weak productivity. Perhaps you are making more efforts to maintain your gains.
I'll speak in English. I'll try as hard as I can.
Ford Canada, like GM, sells a lot of half-ton trucks, which in my perception doesn't make sense, because we're all on the side of the green vehicles, etc. About 85% or 87% of the cars you're selling are half-tons, or pickup trucks. We're studying manufacturing, so how do you prepare yourself for future manufacturing taking that into consideration? Light cars, economy cars, electric cars: what is the perception of Ford on this from a manufacturing point of view when you are still selling very heavy vehicles?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford Motor Company of Canada Limited
Thank you for the comment, especially in English. My apologies.
As I mentioned, in December, Ford announced $4.5 billion over the next five years on our electrification strategy, and manufacturing is a part of that. Forty per cent of our lineup will have an electrified power train, whether it's an electrified vehicle or a plug-in. That includes our SUVs, our CUVs, and even our full-sized pickups, but we need to create that demand. We need to do this for our future, but we need to create the demand.
Liberal
President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford Motor Company of Canada Limited
There's some research and development in terms of electrified vehicles, as Caroline mentioned, in Windsor. We have our research on our power trains working on electrified vehicles as well.
Liberal
Chief Executive Officer, Electra Meccanica Vehicles
I would like to put my order in for a fully electric Ford GT right here with everybody watching.
Liberal
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Thank you.
Thank you again for being here today.
In terms of one of the concerns for manufacturing, obviously the base is in southern Ontario and parts of Quebec. One of the items we saw in the mandate letter to the minister specifically cited a continuance of an attitude towards transitioning away from manufacturing. I think the exact words are “traditional manufacturing” in communities that rely heavily on it. St. Thomas would fall under that, and obviously other areas would.
Are there any comments you have for us on how we can actually do the opposite? How can we prevent the transition away and rebuild or retool some of those plants that have wilted away over the years?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford Motor Company of Canada Limited
In the case of St. Thomas, that plant closed largely because we were building Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Cars, and that segment just shrank. That was a big reason that St. Thomas closed. It was just because of the overall demand. I think Oakville is a great example, with all the innovation that's gone into that plant, where we're building a global platform for the world that has a lot of innovation with non-traditional manufacturing.
I think we're already doing it. Can we do more? Absolutely.
National President, Unifor
More than ever, today we know that we need a diversified economy. We thought we were going to have an economy where the streets were going to be lined with oil, so we put all our apples in one basket, I would suggest, and we got away from the manufacturing sector. We didn't support it. We really do need to find a mechanism to diversify, to have a strong manufacturing sector, to put into place those types of incentives, and of course to strengthen our oil and energy sector.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
You're saying to transition back to manufacturing, not away from manufacturing.
Liberal
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, it would be remiss of me not to mention that the Essex engine plant is technically in Windsor, but we like our Essex people too.
Just to point out the advanced behaviour of Ford and the CAW, now Unifor, I was proud to be able to share with my daughter, while I was driving by the plant the other day, the naturalized area that was done. It was mocked a long time ago. It has now matured and has become a symbol of industrial and environmental work. It may seem like a very modest project to some, but the Herculean effort undertaken by Ford and the CAW at that time is instrumental as a model. I thank you for that. I think a lot of it has to do with the innovation that we have coming forward.
Really quickly, I'll leave this for all three of you to answer, and basically yes or no. I believe that manufacturing is actually a part of national security and a national strategy. I believe that with the technology we see, and the transfer of this technology, it's a real opportunity. I also believe that Canada's ability to be swift, quick, and small, compared to some of the markets we compete with, is an advantage in this new and emerging development of technology and the turnover rate it has.
Starting in Vancouver and coming back to here, do you think that if we were to put the proper national auto strategy in place we could actually re-emerge as world champions?
Chief Executive Officer, Electra Meccanica Vehicles
We can definitely become world leaders not only in producing vehicles that address commuters and shipping cars for corporate clients, but also in providing vehicles that address the environmental concerns you've identified there, absolutely.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford Motor Company of Canada Limited
I would say we have an obligation to do exactly what you're doing: to protect the environment. In fact, we're really proud of the fact that our Oakville assembly plant is 100% waste free and we're building over 300,000 vehicles out of that assembly plant.
Thank you for your comment.
National President, Unifor
There's no question, we are in a transition to a green economy. The question becomes, how do we do it?
How long is it going to take? How are we going to train people to deal with ever-changing technology? There are obviously symbols of how we can be running green companies, and there's a mechanism to do it, but we have to make sure that we bring everybody along.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
That's excellent.
Thank you. That's going to end the question and answer period.
Thank you very much for a most awesome presentation, with a lot of great stuff. It's very exciting to see where we have the potential to continue to grow.
Again, thank you to our guests. We're going to suspend for a couple of minutes and come back and do our housekeeping, and then we'll be done for the day.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Thank you very much, guys.
The only order of business we have right now is the budget.
Is this budget everything, all the witnesses for the manufacturing study? It's everything to date. Does that take us to the end of the manufacturing study, unless we do more travel?
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Christine Lafrance
It doesn't include travel at all.