Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise again tonight to talk about the Canadian auto industry, specifically about the case of General Motors.
We have seen a reduction in investment in the auto industry that is unprecedented in Canadian history, given the fact that massive investments have been made not only in Mexico but also in the United States.
General Motors in Oshawa has been acquiring another product, but unfortunately, the divestment there has taken place at the expense of the workers.
Active talks are going on with the union and the company right now, but the lack of a federal auto policy has seen our investment percentage shrink quite significantly. Despite what the government says about what it has invested, it is much smaller in our auto environment.
What is concerning is that the USMCA, the new NAFTA agreement, which has been agreed to in principle but will likely not be implemented because of several problems, also contains further auto concessions. That is another issue.
The Prime Minister famously said in London, Ontario, that we have to transition out of manufacturing, but record investments are taking place within a matter of miles of Windsor, two miles across the border, where $14 billion is being invested by Fiat Chrysler and General Motors in Detroit, Michigan.
Today is the first day of a new incentive program the government has rolled out with regard to electric and other greener vehicles. Ironically, the Liberal government originally proposed a $300-million incentive program that restricted and eliminated the only electric vehicle in Canada, the Windsor-built Chrysler Pacifica. Ironically, they had to be brought to the table to include this multi-passenger vehicle with an electric motor, because the government excluded it. That was after the Prime Minister visited the plant in Windsor. He promised to come back many times. He promised to support the workers, and then he left them off the incentive program.
Thank goodness that a number of auto workers across Ontario, including not only in the Windsor area but along the 401 all the way to the Brampton assembly area, were signed up to have the Pacifica included in the incentive program.
There are several problems with that program. We are talking about $300 million that is likely primarily going to be for foreign vehicles. The Chrysler Pacifica is on that. The foreign vehicle incentive program the government has laid out unfortunately should have gone to creating a cleaner, greener manufacturing industry in Canada.
Canada has not had a national auto strategy. What is interesting is that the Fiat Chrysler and General Motors investments of billions of dollars in Detroit are for advanced technology vehicles that we could have had here.
My question is with regard to General Motors and the closure in Oshawa. The government did not even follow through with its own auto czar, Ray Tanguay, who two years ago tabled a report for the government. Ironically, the minister received the report in Detroit, not even in Canada. The minister did nothing with the report he paid for. Over the next year and a half, we witnessed plant closings here and plant openings and investments not only in Mexico but in the United States.
It is wrong. We have to reverse it. We can still do it.