I want to offer my support for this motion. I think it is very important at this particular time to show defence of the Canadian automotive industry. We're talking about the future of manufacturing and auto in our country. We have the steel and aluminum tariffs, which are a direct threat to our manufacturing. We have what's happening at GM, which, unfortunately, has happened throughout the country over the life of NAFTA, largely, with jobs leaving to go to Mexico. I think it's very telling that we don't see any jobs being lost in Mexico on this announcement by GM. It's only Canada and the U.S. that will lose plants.
I think our committee often has auto people here from different groups that represent labour and the corporate side of automotive manufacturing right down to the parts. We have had the tool and die mould-makers. They are all part of this very deep supply chain throughout Ontario.
The economic impact of these types of jobs leaving is so devastating and significant. We've seen GM leave Windsor. At one point, Windsor was the automotive capital of Canada, and we've been decimated by these losses. We look at the strike they had at CAMI Automotive in Ingersoll this year, over a threat of no product going forward and removing their line to Mexico, which they were able to fight back contractually.
I believe there is a role to play for government in keeping a very strategic sector strong in our country. Certainly in trade agreements auto is often one of the top three issues, along with agriculture and others. I do think it would be very important for us to do this and talk about how we defend against the other countries that are aggressively pursuing our auto sector and attempting to drag it to a lower-wage economy.
We saw this in Malaysia when we visited as a committee. We saw how Malaysia has grown its auto sector in an attempt to grab this global market. I think ultimately, too, having the Minister of Innovation here is important because we're talking about the future of the automotive industry. We're talking about this major disruption that's going to come around autonomous vehicles. That spans a bunch of portfolios, but it certainly spans trade, and in particular those supply chains that go across the border for automotive, eight times sometimes in the life of a vehicle, and what that means to the future of an autonomous world in AI, and all the pieces that will play into that.
I want to give my strong support for this. I don't think it will come as a surprise, as a 20-year auto worker, that I think it's important we stand strong for our automotive industry.