By CRM Staff
Toronto, Ontario — November 28, 2018 —The closure of Oshawa’s General Motors plant will be sure to have lasting effects in the city and the surrounding area, but what does it mean for the rest of Canada?
According to Dennis DesRosiers of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, the reality is a “fly speck.”
“There are over 800,000 jobs in the automotive sector (in Canada) and this is 2,500 (unionized) jobs,” DesRosiers told The HuffPost Canada.
DesRosiers’ numbers are referring to the total number of jobs both directly and indirectly related to the automotive sector. As of right now, the automotive industry directly employs approximately 140,000 people in Canada.
According to economists from BMO, the impact on Ontario and Canada’s broader economy will be limited. The province’s economic output will shrink from 0.3 to 0.5 percent, while the Canadian output will move from 0.1 to 0.2 percent. The change won’t be significant enough to affect either the Ontario or Canadian unemployment rate.
In Canada’s $2-trillion-plus economy, the numbers can add up. Despite this reality, the economic impact isn’t the same due to Canada’s declining auto industry.
Since 2005 the Canadian auto industry has suffered declines, particularly during the Great Recession of 2008-09. Employment and auto production have never been able to recover to the same level as before.
“The canary in the coal mine has been dead in the cage for about a decade at this point,” DesRosiers told HuffPost Canada by phone. “And we’re just noticing that now.”
DesRosiers believes there needs to be a shift in focus from manufacturing to technological innovation, in order to make the best out of an unfortunate situation.
“If 15 years ago we had focused on the intellectual side of the industry, then we may have been positioned for the new technology era that the industry has begotten,” DesRosiers told The HuffPost Canada.
“Today we can get a piece of that action if we change our focus away from pure production.”
