Skilled Trades Association, CAW Local 199 St. Catharines (General Motors Unit) | ||||||
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We received this from Malcolm Allen on January 16th, 2009 re: our letter.
Dear Bob,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me about the decline of the manufacturing sector in Ontario.
As you know, I worked in the automotive industry, and was active in the labour movement for many years before becoming the Member of Parliament for Welland. Like many others in Ontario, my family has relied on jobs in, or related to, manufacturing; however, thousands of these jobs have already been lost. Addressing this crisis is crucial to our economy, and particularly the economy of southern Ontario.
My work to support the manufacturing sector is well known, as evidenced in an article written about my recent election in the Welland Tribune, in which Larry Savage, a professor of political science and labour studies at Brock University, was quoted as saying, “There's no question that of all the candidates, Malcolm Allen understands the manufacturing sector in Niagara and Ontario and across Canada." On the same day, I was quoted in the Niagara Falls Review as follows: "We're going to have to take a look right across the board and see what's in front of us. We're going to have to sit down and devise a strategy to see what we can do about it - that's to keep jobs here, which is the ultimate thing we want to do. We need to put Welland back on the map so we're a place for industry to come ... We need to protect the ones we have and bring new ones here. I'll leave no stone unturned. That's the way I've done my work in the past and that's the way I'll be doing it in the future. You never stop working at these things until there isn't anyone to talk to anymore."
Jack Layton’s New Democrats have been clear: we support making Canada a leader in renewable technologies and green solutions, and protecting jobs and the families who rely on them. In the automotive sector, there are real opportunities for growth, but growth that keeps with our priority to clean up our environment, address the climate crisis, and pass on a better world to our children.
The New Democratic Party agrees that the federal government should be the lender of last resort. In light of the exceptional circumstances faced by the auto industry at this time, we believe Ottawa should immediate assistance should be provided to the automotive sector. This assistance should include a financial bridge to bring stability to the sector, as well as longer term fiscal support to the restructuring and retooling of the industry to boost the production of innovative green cars for the 21st century. The NDP is also demanding guaranteed employment levels with any financial assistance.
A restoration of a balanced trade policy in autos would produce hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the sector. Given the circumstances, and considering its strategic importance, it is high time that the federal government stopped playing games with livelihoods of over half a million workers and act now.
Thank you once again for your feedback,
Sincerely, Malcolm Allen MP for Welland | ||||||
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