Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Windsor West.
When we get into debates about issues like this, the absolute decimation of the Canadian auto sector, what we find is that Liberal members love to get up and talk about programs, funding envelopes and all these other wonderful things they are allegedly doing that are supposed to make things work, but let us talk about the facts.
The facts are pretty terrible. We have now lost 3,000 jobs at the Brampton assembly plant. We have lost over 1,000 jobs at the BrightDrop assembly plant. Honda is losing approximately $900 per vehicle it exports to the United States, so who knows how long that is going to continue.
Every time we bring this up, the Liberals get up and say that there is a trade war, as if we are not aware of that fact. However, the problem with the trade war is that the Prime Minister has stood in this chamber and said, “We have the best deal [on auto] in the world”, as if he is proud of what has happened with the 10% tariffs on auto, because that is what he is saying: “We have the best deal in the world.” It is either incredible ignorance or he actually does not care.
I have spoken with Unifor's local presidents in the auto assembly industry and with Unifor's skilled trades council, and they have told me that the Canadian auto sector cannot survive at a 10% tariff, yet we have the Prime Minister standing up in this chamber and bragging about how we have the lowest auto tariffs in the world. It is an unbelievable insult to every single auto worker in this country.
We know the results of what is happening with these tariffs: the layoffs in Brampton, the layoffs in BrightDrop and the layoffs in the auto sector in general. We also have to think of what the Prime Minister said just over a week ago when asked what the status of the negotiations with President Trump was: “Who cares?” and that is “boring”. This is the same Prime Minister who is bragging about a 10% tariff that is decimating the Canadian auto industry.
If that is not bad enough, let us talk about some of these programs the Liberals like to brag about, like the ones the member for Guelph was just rhyming off as if there is some amazing development for the Canadian auto industry. They signed a contract with Stellantis specifically with respect to the Brampton assembly plant. In that agreement, they were going to give up to $1 billion for retooling the Brampton assembly plant and another assembly plant. As part of that, there was supposed to be a jobs guarantee.
We have heard the Minister of Industry say, and I saw her say it at committee, that there is a jobs guarantee. We asked her in what section of the contract. She could not say what section of the contract, because she did not read the contract. We also heard the previous industry minister say that he did not read the contract, so we have ministers signing multi-billion dollar contracts and not reading them.
Let me tell members something about contracts, because I did go to law school and I remember taking contracts in law school. If there was a jobs guarantee, as the Liberals describe, how was Stellantis able to lay off 3,000 workers at the plant in Brampton? At the time they signed the agreement with Stellantis in Brampton, there were a total of 8,000 Stellantis workers in Canada. If the Liberals had a jobs guarantee, as they suggest, does the job guarantee allow Stellantis to lay off almost 50% of its workforce and still get almost $1 billion? It is outrageous.
The incompetence from the Liberals is stunning and staggering, yet no one gets held accountable. In fact, the minister who signed this contract, which has allowed Stellantis to lay off all these workers when there is a so-called jobs guarantee, was promoted to finance minister.
Let us talk about the zero-emission vehicle mandates that the Liberals keep talking about. When I was a shadow minister for environment, I asked exactly where we were on building out the charging infrastructure and the power generation. We are nowhere near getting it done. They are plowing ahead with the zero-emission vehicle mandate because it sounds good, but it is causing havoc in the industry. All the CEOs have asked for it to be scrapped, but the Liberals push forward with it, sign terrible contracts and have decimated the auto industry. They should be ashamed of themselves.