Automotive industry officials urge the Canadian government to help local carmakers, a move that would preserve jobs, production plants, R&D centers and authorized dealerships. "I think the Canadian government needs to be at the table now so it doesn't get excluded, so it can have some impact on the outcome. The costs of not helping are enormous,” Bill Pochiluk, president of West Chester, Pa.-based AutomotiveCompass, was quoted as saying by The Detroit News.
There are approximately 250,000 people employed by Canadian subsidiaries of US-based carmakers, the aforementioned source added, a fact that does nothing more than to determine the Canadian government enter negotiations.
“Because of the enormous impact on jobs across the entire economy, the Canadian government would be smart to participate. It'll cost less doing it this way,” Pochiluk said, explaining that a potential solution would be represented by new taxes for vehicles manufactured overseas which would obviously increase demand for local models and protect Canadian jobs.
What's interesting is that Canada was one of the less-affected markets when it comes to consequences of the global economic crisis, with local carmakers meeting a slight increase of sales in October, in contrast to most other countries, that brought huge loses of 30 to 40 percent.
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