Mr. Chair, Canada's auto industry has long been a proud cornerstone of our economy. It contributes over $16 billion to our GDP annually and supports more than 600,000 direct and indirect jobs nationwide, but today, that foundation is cracking.
For decades, Canada's auto sector has relied on a highly integrated North American supply chain dependent on just-in-time delivery and seamless cross-border co-operation, but what was once considered a strength has now been exposed as a dangerous vulnerability. Donald Trump's trade war is seriously damaging the Canadian auto industry, and our workers and communities are paying the price.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian-made vehicles and parts, along with duties on steel and aluminum. Let us be very clear that these actions are totally unjustified and wrong. They violate every principle of fair trade and good international relations. They are a cold, self-interested calculation by the American President, intended to move jobs and production from Canada to the United States. These measures have driven up production costs, disrupted supply chains and eroded our position in the U.S. market, where more than 90% of Canadian auto exports are sold.
The consequences of our dependence on this single market have been devastating. In recent months, Canada has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, with Ontario seeing the greatest impact. Manufacturing employment as a share of Ontario's total workforce has now fallen below 10% for the first time since records began in 1976. This has negatively affected companies involved in direct automotive production, as well as those who indirectly support this critical industry.
Here are some notable examples. Stellantis recently announced plans to end production at its Brampton assembly plant and shipped 3,000 Canadian jobs to Illinois. In Windsor, Stellantis idled its assembly plant in April, laying off 4,500 employees and threatening up to 12,000 jobs in the auto parts supply chain. It was shocking to hear news of this betrayal.
The federal Liberal government paid Stellantis more than $220 million to upgrade its plants before this decision was announced, and another $15 billion in production subsidies were provided to Stellantis in exchange for an explicit commitment to manufacture in Canada.
This has become a disturbing pattern under the Liberal government. Just this week, Algoma Steel issued layoff notices to 1,000 workers after the Liberals gave it $400 million. Shockingly, according to Algoma's CEO, the federal government knew about these layoff plans before delivering the public funds. General Motors has also delivered a series of blows. The company plans to lay off 2,000 workers at its Oshawa plant this January. This comes after GM announced that it was pausing production at its assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk. Unifor Local 88 has taken the courageous position of vowing to take over the Ingersoll plant if the company attempts to remove equipment from the building.
The present Liberal government was elected largely on its promise to take an elbows-up approach to dealing with the United States. It marketed its Prime Minister as one who was able to handle Donald Trump. His economist background was touted to be just what Canada needed to protect and advance our economy, yet what have we seen to date? We have seen the Prime Minister make a series of unilateral concessions to the U.S. without securing a single gain for Canada. We have seen the Liberals remove retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. after promising Canadians we would match American tariffs one for one. In the last few months alone, we have seen $500 million of taxpayer money thrown away to companies who turned around and cut thousands of Canadian jobs. Worse still, the Liberals advanced these funds knowing the companies were going to slash Canadians' employment just before Christmas.
Workers should never be forced to physically occupy their workplace to protect equipment that Canadian taxpayers helped pay for. Canada should never have to bow down to aggressive American actions that are unfair and unjustified. Precious tax dollars should never be wasted on companies without a solid guarantee that this investment will create solid returns and jobs for Canadians and their families. Instead the federal government should do what New Democrats have long called for and stop these companies from taking our money and shipping the equipment we funded out the door.
The reality is that Canada must now take bold action to reclaim control over our auto industry. That means revisiting the principles of the auto pact, which for decades required automakers to produce at least one vehicle in Canada for every one sold here. In our view, any company that wants access to the Canadian market should be required to produce here, no matter where they are headquartered. Whether it is an American, European, Japanese, Korean or Chinese company, if it wants to sell in Canada, it must invest in Canada.
The original auto pact created thousands of jobs and made Canada a global auto leader. A modern auto pact would protect Canadian jobs, innovation and sovereignty in a sector that is vital to our future. It is important to note that it was Conservative and then Liberal policies in the late 1980s and 1990s that put Canada in this vulnerable position with the U.S. today. Those parties decided to more deeply integrate the Canadian economy with the American economy and then with the Mexican one, when the New Democrats warned that this was the wrong course of action.
It was the NDP that said then that while the Canada-U.S. trading relationship was profoundly important, we should be doing everything we can to reduce our dependence on the American market, to diversify our trade and to produce more in Canada to make our economy stronger and more self-sufficient. As a wise merchant told me in Vancouver, it is a vulnerable business that relies too heavily on one customer.
It is clear that those parties, whose poor economic planning got us into the serious economic precarity we are in today, will not be capable of getting us out of it. What we need is what the NDP called for in the late 1980s: a strong policy of economic nationalization, in which we use Canadian companies, using and adding value to Canadian resources and employing Canadian workers to build here and export to the world, just like the U.S. did to achieve its economic strength.
The Liberal government's present lack of leadership has only deepened the crisis. By its weak and ineffective response to Donald Trump, we have emboldened the U.S., and we are seeing the job losses and industrial challenges here as a result. This must be addressed and reversed immediately. We can start by saying that every vehicle sold in Canada must be matched by a vehicle produced here, as we did so successfully with the auto pact. There should be no more vehicles going across the border 12 times before being finished. Let us produce, fabricate and assemble the vehicles here as much as we can.
We must also think forward and build the vehicles of the future. By recently reversing Canada's electric vehicle mandate, the Liberal government has left the Canadian auto industry in limbo and confusion. Businesses need certainty in order to invest, yet this reversal means that Canada will be eclipsed by competitors in the race to the future. While the rest of the world is building EV supply chains, securing battery production and creating sustainable jobs, Canada is betting regressively on 20th-century technology and production like pipelines, fossil fuels and internal combustion engines.
Rather than appeasing the oil and gas sector, Canada must develop resilient supply chains for EV manufacturing, diversify its trade partners and reduce our dependence on the U.S. market once and for all. If we fail to act, we will lose not just community-sustaining jobs but an entire generation of industrial leadership. Canada cannot afford to be at the mercy of any foreign government or corporation.
Donald Trump has been clear that he wants to hurt our economy by shifting production from Canada to the U.S. We cannot let that happen. Instead of capitulation to the Trump administration, we need decisive action to protect jobs, strengthen our auto industry and build an economy that works for all—
