Horwath slams McGuinty’s Navistar inaction

QUEEN’S PARK – NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is slamming the McGuinty government for doing precious little to prevent Navistar from moving truck production from Chatham to Mexico, despite a massive infusion of public dollars.

“More than $60 million of hard-earned taxpayers’ money has been shovelled into the Navistar truck plant in Chatham,” said Horwath during today’s Question Period.

“As a thank you to Ontarians for their generosity, Navistar has shifted production to Mexico, and laid-off all of its 1,200 Chatham workers. When will this government stand up to Navistar and demand it live up to its obligations to Ontario workers and Ontario taxpayers?” she asked.

Horwath added that it appears the McGuinty government has pretty much given up on holding the company to account for its actions.

“It seems that the Minister of Economic Development and Trade (Sandra Pupatello) has already thrown in the towel,” she said.

“Last week, the Minister said, and I’m going to quote, there is ‘no role’ for the McGuinty government to play in resolving this Navistar issue. With 1,200 jobs and $60-million of public money on the line, how can this government let Navistar off the hook so easily?”

Pupatello responded by reinforcing the McGuinty government’s unconditional surrender to the multinational: “I will reiterate again: There is no role for the Ontario government . . .”

“It’s a sad day for Chatham and for all of Ontario. Based on this response, it’s clear the McGuinty Liberals think it’s quite alright for large companies to take advantage of Ontario workers and taxpayers whenever it is convenient for them to do so. Navistar says ‘Hasta la vista, Ontario’ and Dalton McGuinty says, ‘OK’,” said Horwath.

Posted on October 19, 2009. Read more about: , .

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