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
Next up? Ballots with the picutre of your favorite politician.
It ain't addressed 'til us Southern illiterates address it properly.
NEA & UAW ride again!
Exactly! He's not the one to go for for an unbiased opinion of why automakers should not go to the south where the workers are non-union and inexpensive is he? Nor should anyone accept what he says as an indication of anything Toyota executives may be thinking. His job is to gain work in Canada and if that means making stuff up about southern workers -- then so be it. But what he says IS NOT in any way, shape, or form, something that Toyota executives have said.
No way. If that were the case, Toyota wouldn't have fled to union friendly, socialist Canada. Toyota won't be saving a dime on what it pays employees with this move, that's for damned sure.
I never recite pi to 48,000 decimal places. My native and inherent modesty prevents it.
Besides that, the North Carolina legislature once passed a bill setting pi equal to 3.0000. So you sort of have to look askance at some of the North Carolina circle circumferences.
Paula, I'm with you. "Loose" for "lose", "to" for "too", incorrect use of "their", "there", "they're", and all the permutations and combinations pertaining thereto bug me, too. (Or is it "bug me to"?)
"In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment."
Finally a believable answer for my Mercedes ML320, built in Alabama.
So what? He's blowing smoke out his ass by insulting Americans. Your prime minister can make the same claim and it would mean NOTHING to me.
He could have bragged about bagging the new plant by justing claiming to be a good match for Toyota, but no, he has to insult Americans, Southerers mainly. He is $hit to me!
That's just claiming
The cities are so crowded nobody goes there anymore.
After spending the day with my 15 yr old grandson riding the "rails" here in Dallas and looking at the black underclass at every train stop.....it is little wonder that the Mexicans are crossing the border in record numbers.... It is truly a travesty to look at the young blacks....they are a throw away generation....85% of the children here in Dallas are born out of wedlock... The black families have been destroyed...by Jesse Jackson and the Democrats in this country...we now have a generation that is virtually worthless...capable of nothing but proliferation...of some more children that will face the same future..racial profiling has nothing to do with the color of your skin...I guess old man Bird finally got something correct.l.
Usually people who dropped out of high school and/or never attended college. Why should they hire someone who doesnt even want to finish school?
I think so too , but I am sure catching hell from the flamers. LMAO
Youd be surprised how many older adults spell it "loose" when it should be "lose". It really stands out in a contract or a business memo..and looks BAD.
That's been tried before. Didn't work. One idiot even sent me a picture of their doll.
I subscribe to a different pantheon. :)
Not at all, but my point is that opening a plant in the South does not automatically confer the status of "trouble-free" upon the proceedings.
Tanguay's statement about no auto plant can operate without overtime is very interesting given Toyota's overall approach to waste, i.e. the Toyota Production System. Actually, the TPS is probably a significant reason why they chose a more highly-educated and easily trained workforce. Easier to motivate with performance improvement incentives from the use of the suggestion box.
There's a national epidemic of using "loose" for "lose", "looser" for "loser". And it does indeed look terrible.
But it appears to me that age has little to do with it.
"Remember, these plants are opening up in the middle of *nowhere* in these states. The population is decidedly rural and many people in the area drop out at the 6th grade or earlier."
You are not allowed to drop out of school in the sixth grade anywhere that I know of. Of course with 40 years of liberal control of the schools what does anyone expect. I used to volunteer to read stories to grade school children in Nashville, Tn. and saw kids with blatant developmental problems stuck in the classes with bright children. Many of them were disruptive any agressive. When I went to school the special ed kids had their own classes.
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