Thank you very much, and on behalf of General Motors, I want to say thank you to the committee for the leadership that all of you have displayed during this health crisis.
Times of emergency are when we truly demonstrate Canadian bravery, resilience and our unique spirit of partnership. We did that in the world wars and we're doing it again. We'll get through this together, and I believe we ultimately, like my friend Jim just said, have opportunities to make Canada a stronger and more competitive economy if we learn from this time and take action to prepare for the changing competitive world that lies ahead.
I'd like to make three key points and then look forward to discussion later.
First, everything we do today has to start with safety. I've provided the committee with a link to General Motors Canada's playbook for safe resumption of our automotive operations, which started two weeks ago for auto plants here in Canada. Our approach is guided by Health Canada, the WHO, our medical staff and learnings from our successful safe resumption of General Motors operations in Asia. Some of you will have attended our webinars. We've shared our protocols and procedures widely as we prepared our employees, unions and communities to have a safe return to work. I'm pleased to report that General Motors has not had a single case of COVID-19 spreading in the workplace in any of our global operations.
Second, COVID-19 is an emergency like no other, with economic as well as health implications. This is especially true for the auto sector. In March the fully integrated North American sector saw its factories grind to a halt. In April in Canada vehicle sales were down 75%. This creates extraordinary challenges in a complex industry like automotive as we endeavour to sustain our businesses and then kick-start the manufacturing engine of our economy at a time when our revenues have collapsed. We believe the auto sector will be one of the key leaders of economic recovery in North America, and it will rapidly innovate towards electric, autonomous and other technologies as we go forward, but we know that this is going to require some extraordinary effort and partnership.
We're deeply appreciative of the bold initiatives of our governments across Canada to support people and our businesses, but we know that we're only partway there. Canada's auto sector has united behind a few core recommendations. The first is our call to ensure liquidity, particularly by reinstating the Canada secured credit facility to support auto finance companies, suppliers and dealers so that they can stay alive and support our employees and the customers who finance or lease vehicles across Canada.
Canada's auto sector is also united in calling for a Canadian vehicle scrappage incentive for consumers who turn in a 12-year or older higher-emitting vehicle to be scrapped. The permanent retirement of these older vehicles would generate a significant reduction in greenhouse gases and other emissions from the on-road fleet, while also improving road safety. We believe the right scrappage incentive program can help spark and sustain the recovery of auto sales in Canada, which is essential if we're going to keep auto factories, suppliers and their employees working.
I'll end where I started—with leadership. I'm proud to be part of a sector that stepped up without hesitation to quickly retool, manufacture, donate and deliver medical devices and the protective equipment needed by our front-line heroes and by all Canadians as we get back to work. There are numerous examples including thousands of auto dealers in communities across Canada who made the difference when a car was essential to get food, medical advice or help to a neighbour.
At GM Canada, together with the Government of Canada, we've announced that we have converted parts of the Oshawa auto plant to make millions of face masks for Canadians and will do that with no profit. I never imagined that we would become a licensed medical manufacturer, but we are now and we're proud to be able to help.
There is more that we all can and must do as the auto sector reboots and then continues to transform in exciting new ways. We will succeed and there will be opportunities for Canada to do so too. I look forward to discussing that with you.