NDP auto announcement a hot topic for Oshawa riding
Fowler says plan vital because of large manufacturing sector in city; other parties say high taxes would kill jobs
Oshawa NDP candidate Mary Fowler is touting her party’s auto policy announcement, which she says would benefit the city’s auto manufacturing sector. The Liberals and Conservatives, however, say that high taxes right now would kill jobs rather than save them.
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
The NDP haven taken aim at the auto sector with the recent announcement that leader Tom Mulcair will fight changes in the currently discussed Trans-Pacific Partnership that could see the regional content rules for auto manufacturing reduced.
Current rules under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) stipulate that vehicles can be sold in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico without facing tariffs only if 62.5 per cent of it originates in those countries.
Proposed changes under the Pacific Rim trade deal could see that number reduced to 45 per cent or even as low as 30.
Ron Svajlenko, president of Unifor Local 222, says his organization is not in support of any such trade deal.
“It’s only going to hurt jobs here,” he tells The Express.
“If we reduce that down to 30, we’re going to have a lot of low-cost jurisdictions around the world, and we’ve seen it happen with China, India, and they’re going to get into the game and they’re going to reduce the amount of North American content, and with that we’re going to lose jobs,” he says.
For local NDP candidate Mary Fowler, jobs are a top priority, noting that 18,500 manufacturing jobs have been lost locally under Stephen Harper.
“We need to make sure we’ve got good jobs here in our community and moving forward for those people who are looking for good paying, middle-class jobs,” Fowler says.
Under Muclair’s proposed plan, $90 million dollars would be invested into Canada’s automotive supplier program over the next five years. This past April, Ottawa announced $100 million for the same program, the mandate of which is to foster automotive technology development and increase competitiveness.
“Obviously manufacturing plays a huge role in the automotive sector here in Oshawa and across the country,” Fowler says. “We’re a huge part of the GDP of the country and the NDP certain recognizes that moving forward we need to be investing in manufacturing.”
A third part of Mulcair’s strategy calls for an auto summit within the first 100 days of an NDP government to develop a national automotive strategy.
Tax hike unwanted
Another candidate in the riding, however, says that the proposed NDP plan would hurt Oshawa’s automotive industry, rather than help it.
“The NDP is proposing a massive corporate tax hike that would severely damage the auto industry in Oshawa. They talk a good a game on manufacturing, but the reality is, their plan would take billions of dollars out of businesses at a time we need growth and jobs,” states Tito-Dante Marimpietri, the Liberal Party’s Oshawa candidate, in an emailed statement.
Marimpietri adds that the proposed NDP plan would not fix the problems he says were created under the Conservative government.
“Together with their plan for cuts at all costs, the NDP corporate tax hike will kill jobs in Oshawa’s auto sector. An auto-summit will not reverse the damage caused by taking billions of dollars away from businesses at a time we need to invest and create jobs,” said Marimpietri. “We already have a government that, under Stephen Harper, pulled investment out of Oshawa’s manufacturing sector through their GM share fire-sale in a vain attempt to pad the books before the election. We don’t need an NDP government that would continue to bury us under the weight of ill-advised campaign promises.”
The Conservatives have pledged that if reelected, they would work to keep taxes low and also create a $100-million Manufacturing Technology Demonstration Fund, which would go toward large, pre-commercial projects in the advanced manufacturing sector.
“Our Conservative government has a low-tax, balanced budget plan to strengthen Canada’s manufacturing industry, which is a key pillar of the Canadian economy,” Stephen Harper states in a news release announcing the proposed plan. “While we have been working to create new jobs in this essential sector, the Liberals and NDP have promised tax hikes that would put the jobs of over 1.6 million Canadians who work in manufacturing at risk.”