Ontario`s auto sector gets fresh boost
The auto industry is starting to recapture its status as the strongman of the Ontario economy, but it`s not as muscular as it was.
In the second positive jolt for Ontario`s battered auto and manufacturing sector in less than a week, Honda of Canada Mfg. said it will restore 400 jobs at one of its assembly plants in Alliston, Ont., and boost production there to 600 vehicles a day from the current 400.
The good news is that the Honda move, combined with the recall of 700 workers at a General Motors of Canada Ltd. plant in Oshawa, Ont., announced last Friday, and the start of a second shift of workers two weeks ago at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. plant in Woodstock, Ont., will put about 2,000 people back to work in the auto sector.
The bad news, however, is that about 38,000 jobs in vehicle assembly and parts manufacturing disappeared between the end of 2007 and December, 2009, when the auto industry experienced the worst crisis it has faced since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
That means there are still 36,000 positions left to replace in an industry that is not expected to see vehicle sales recover to pre-crisis levels until at least the middle of the decade.
"You have to be positive, but you also can`t lose sight of just how much more work is in front of us," said industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc., of Richmond Hill, Ont.
Mr. DesRosiers noted that after every decline since the end of the Second World War, the auto industry has bounced back, in some cases from declines of 25 per cent of more.
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