Toyota Gets $34 Million From Canadian Government To Build Hybrids

by Derek Kreindler

Published: January 24th, 2013

toyota gets 34 million from canadian government to build hybrids

Toyota’s Cambridge, Ontario plant will have the honor of being the sole facility outside Japan to produce hybrid Lexus RX crossovers. The announcement came alongside plans for an investment of $34 million investment from the Canadian government.

The Ontario government and the Canadian federal government contributed $17 million each to help upgrade the plant and add 400 jobs. The federal portion comes from Canada’s “Innovation Fund”, a $250 million fund that is being used to provide investment in the auto industry at a time when many auto makers, particularly from the Detroit Three, are complaining about excessive labor costs and a high Canadian dollar to makes it difficult to do business in Canada.

A report by the Windsor Star quotes Tony Faria, an auto industry expert and University professor, as he outlines the challenges faced by Canada in attracting new investment

“It’s not unusual for governments in the southern states to assemble the land for a plant, provide the land free, provide all of the upgrades in infrastructure to service the plant, provide training funds for the workforce, tax abatement for 20, 30 years in future, pay directly for part of the plant’s construction — in other words, cover between 33 and 40 per cent of the entire investment the company would be making in the facility.”

Many observers have been calling for increased government investment in the auto industry, while opponents cry “corporate welfare” over the multi-million dollar sums that flow from the government to the auto makers. Your stance on the matter depends on where you stand on the political spectrum. Those with their feet firmly planted on the ground know that in Ontario, auto manufacturing is a big player, and one of the last sources of good jobs that hasn’t been offshored.

#Canada #Government #Investment #Lexus #Toyota

Derek Kreindler

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2 of 8 comments

Scott_314 on Jan 24, 2013

A relatively small amount of government money resulting in an positive number of jobs in Ontario? What is this, opposite-day?

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Gentle Ted on Jan 24, 2013

This Plant in Cambridge, Ontario already makes the only Lexus Model(RX350) here, its the only place outside of Japan that any Lexus is manufactured, so I would think that having made a Lexus before here in Cambridge, Toyota know what they are doing as to the workers that build the Lexus RX350. On a Tour of this plant a few years ago, they would not let us see where the Lexus was built, we did see the other Toyota makes manufactured there but the Lexus area was not shown to our Tour!

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Recent Comments

Theflyersfan With sedans, especially, I wonder how many of those sales are to rental fleets. With the exception of the Civic and Accord, there are still rows of sedans mixed in with the RAV4s at every airport rental lot. I doubt the breakdown in sales is publicly published, so who knows... GM isn't out of the sedan business - Cadillac exists and I can't believe I'm typing this but they are actually decent - and I think they are making a huge mistake, especially if there's an extended oil price hike (cough...Iran...cough) and people want smaller and hybrids. But if one is only tied to the quarterly shareholder reports and not trends and the big picture, bad decisions like this get made.
Wjtinfwb Not proud of what Stellantis is rolling out?
Wjtinfwb Absolutely. But not incredibly high-tech, AWD, mega performance sedans with amazing styling and outrageous price tags. GM needs a new Impala and LeSabre. 6 passenger, comfortable, conservative, dead nuts reliable and inexpensive enough for a family guy making 70k a year or less to be able to afford. Ford should bring back the Fusion, modernized, maybe a bit bigger and give us that Hybrid option again. An updated Taurus, harkening back to the Gen 1 and updated version that easily hold 6, offer a huge trunk, elevated handling and ride and modest power that offers great fuel economy. Like the GM have a version that a working mom can afford. The last decade car makers have focused on building cars that American's want, but eliminated what they need. When a Ford Escape of Chevy Blazer can be optioned up to 50k, you've lost the plot.
Willie If both nations were actually free market economies I would be totally opposed. The US is closer to being one, but China does a lot to prop up the sectors they want to dominate allowing them to sell WAY below cost, functionally dumping their goods in our market to destroy competition. I have seen this in my area recently with shrimp farmed by Chinese comglomerates being sold super cheap to push local producers (who have to live at US prices and obey US laws) out of business.China also has VERY lax safety and environmental laws which reduce costs greatly. It isn't an equal playing field, they don't play fair.
Willie ~300,000 Camrys and ~200,000 Accords say there is still a market. My wife has a Camry and we have no desire for a payment on something that has worse fuel economy.