Posted on 07/03/2005 3:25:54 PM PDT by ItsJeff
WOODSTOCK, Ont. (CP) - Ontario workers are well-trained.
That simple explanation was cited as a main reason why Toyota turned its back on hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies offered from several American states in favour of building a second Ontario plant.
Industry experts say Ontarians are easier and cheaper to train - helping make it more cost-efficient to train workers when the new Woodstock plant opens in 2008, 40 kilometres away from its skilled workforce in Cambridge.
"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant.
Acknowledging it was the "worst-kept secret" throughout Ontario's automotive industry, Toyota confirmed months of speculation Thursday by announcing plans to build a 1,300-worker factory in the southwestern Ontario city.
"Welcome to Woodstock - that's something I've been waiting a long time to say," Ray Tanguay, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, told hundreds gathered at a high school gymnasium.
The plant will produce the RAV-4, dubbed by some as a "mini sport-utility vehicle" that Toyota currently makes only in Japan. It plans to build 100,000 vehicles annually.
The factory will cost $800 million to build, with the federal and provincial governments kicking in $125 million of that to help cover research, training and infrastructure costs.
Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double that amount of subsidy. But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.
He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.
"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.
In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson.
"Most people don't think of our health-care system as being a competitive advantage," he said.
Tanguay said Toyota's decision on where to build its seventh North American plant was "not only about money."
"It's about being in the right place," he said, noting the company can rely on the expertise of experienced Cambridge workers to help get Woodstock up and running.
Premier Dalton McGuinty said the money the province and Ottawa are pledging for the project is well-spent. His government has committed $400 million, including the latest Toyota package, to the province's auto sector, which helped finance $5-billion worth of industry projects.
"I think that's a great investment that will more than pay for itself in terms of new jobs and new economic returns," McGuinty said.
The provincial funds for the auto sector were drawn from a fund set up to attract investments specifically in that industry. McGuinty said no similar industry funds are being planned for other sectors, but added the province wants to attract biotechnology companies - those working on multibillion-dollar advanced medical research.
"What we have done for auto we would like to be able to do for biotech," he said. "That's where we're lending some real focus to at the present time."
Similarly, Emmerson said Ottawa is looking to help out industries that create "clusters" of jobs around them - such as in aerospace, shipbuilding, telecommunications and forestry - where supply bases build around a large manufacturer.
© The Canadian Press, 2005
paid in francs
NO, silly...it's 83,432!!!
Man Said to Recite Pi to 83,431 Digits Sat Jul 2, 9:36 PM ET
TOKYO - A Japanese psychiatric counselor has recited pi to 83,431 decimal places from memory, breaking his own personal best of 54,000 digits and setting an unofficial world record, a media report said Saturday.
Akira Haraguchi, 59, had begun his attempt to recall the value of pi — a mathematical value that has an infinite number of decimal places — at a public hall in Chiba city, east of Tokyo, on Friday morning and appeared to give up by noon after only reaching 16,000 decimal places, the Tokyo Shimbun said on its Web site.
But a determined Haraguchi started anew and had broken his old record on Friday evening, about 11 hours after first sitting down to his task, the paper said.
He reached the 80,000-digit mark after midnight early Saturday, according to the paper, which had a photo showing Haraguchi with his eyes closed, his face contorted in concentration.
If verified and recognized by the Guinness Book of Records, Haraguchi's feat would beat his own previous best — currently under review — of 54,000 digits. The official current record-holder, also Japanese, calculated pi from memory to 42,195 decimal places in 1995.
Pi, usually given as an abbreviated 3.14, is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. The number has fascinated and confounded mathematicians for centuries.
Aided by a supercomputer, a University of Tokyo mathematician set the world record for figuring out pi to 1.24 trillion decimal places in 2002.
Researchers say that calculating pi to more than about 1,000 decimal places has not much purpose in math or engineering, though mathematicians have done so to test the accuracy and limits of supercomputers.
are you a public school teacher?
yeah, the parents are responsible too.
"So the Canadian taxpayers pay for Toyota's benefit pkg"
Yes.
...as I said, here comes the 500 pound monkey.......
Yea, I was on that thread. Thought I would make it easy for you.....;) Have to go.
Yes.
I've heard it said that 30% of Seattle's surgical cases are on Canadian nationals. It would be interesting to see if any B. C. or Seattle news organization would look into that figure.
"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.
...and on another thread; American teachers are mewling
Oh, but I'll bet our workers know more about hugging trees and global warming than your workers do. Afterall, our workers have been through our school system.
Busy time under the troll bridge tonight, eh? First defeing Michael Schiavo, now calling Toyota racist. What next? A defense of Scientology? Gonzalez's for USSC?
O, I don't disagree with you...
I only hope the workers are smart enough to reject having that big monkey on their backs...
"Tanguay [President of Toyota Canada] told Cambridge workers they could expect to pay $2.45 million in union dues and reminded them that the plant is the only auto factory on Canada's top 100 places to work, according to Maclean's, a national magazine.
The CAW was approached to organize workers at Cambridge because of excessive overtime. Tanguay says no auto plant can operate without overtime and claims a union contract would provide less schedule flexibility for workers."
What's your point? They mostly vote for uber-liberal anti-American scumbags.
What good is this supposed better education?
"I've heard it said that 30% of Seattle's surgical cases are on Canadian nationals"
Wouldn't surprise me. I have inlaws in BC.....one needs a knee replacement, but they won't do it until they can be sure he's old enough to not need one again......there are tons of anectdotes like that.
But to the point of the thread, the healthcare costs, especially under union rules is a definite factor in the selection.
Canada, and it's ability to socialize the cost (to Toyota) of healthcare wins. Canada would be paying for the workers healthcare anyway - this way, Toyota gets cheaper labor, and the workers pay high taxes....or maybe they just tolerate longer wait times....or both.
Actually it is usually Yankees who come down south and act superior.
I tell them that if they don't like Southerns then "move your ass back up north then"
Heartofsong83: "Woodstock and Oxford County = the most conservative county in southwestern Ontario. No real union base in that area, very much built around agriculture, also a strong religious tinge there."
Toyota doing their homework I see.
I was wondering when someone would notice this. Toyota did not say this. Some freaking Canadian did. And many Freepers fell for it.
Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association , has over 400 members which account for ninety percent of independent parts production in Canada. In 2001, automotive parts sales were $33 Billion and the industry employed 98,000 people.
Some freaking Canadian!
I'm just waiting for someone to post a comment...about being able to laugh at one's self... "self defecating humor"
they'll never live it down...
That's been addressed.
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