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Automotive Expansions in Windsor
The biggest expansion story in the Ontario auto industry this year has to be that of Windsor-Essex. Long a center of the Canadian industry, the region is home to 20 percent of the country's skilled-laborers, according to the Windsor-Essex County Development Commission, though it represents only 1 percent of the population. Located at the southwestern tip of Ontario, and just across the border from Detroit, Mich., the Windsor area is known as "Canada's foremost trade corridor." The Commission estimates that the region handles almost half of all trade between Canada and the U.S.
Ford Canada is adding 500,000 sq. ft. (46,450 sq. m.) to its Windsor Engine Plant, and 250,000 sq. ft. (23,200 sq. m.) to its Essex Engine Plant, but experts are predicting that DaimlerChrysler is set to become the largest volume auto producer in Ontario.
With one expansion already underway at its Windsor Assembly Plant, a new state-of-the-art paint shop, the company recently announced plans for an astounding C$1.5 billion, 2,000,000-sq.-ft. (185,800-sq.-m.) addition at its newly renamed Pillette Assembly Plant. Formerly the Pillette Road Truck Assembly Plant, the facility will cease producing its current model by 2002. "A new product, or products, will go in there for the 2003-model year," says Michael Walker, director of external affairs and public policy for DaimlerChrylser in Canada.
At the Windsor Assembly Plant, which by volume is the third largest in North America, the first phase of a $600,000 new paint-shop addition, which Walker says will allow for "an entirely new application process" was completed this year. The second phase will be announced in the next two years.
"Our plants in Canada are among the highest-rated in the DaimlerChrysler family in North America," says Walker, pointing to the quality work force in place. "Certainly, the exchange rate is working in our favor for an investment, [as is] the infrastructure that Ontario already has in place."
Walker also credits "the extremely dynamic relationship we have with the City of Windsor, their ability to work with us to resolve any and all issues," as a factor in the expansions.
The City "went one step further," says Walker, when it eliminated all development fees on industrial expansions (the province has reduced such fees on 50 percent or less of a property's current square-footage). "And that makes it very enticing for us to look at Windsor, when fees for a project this size would have been several million dollars." Like Murnighan at the CAW, Walker also says that employee costs for most car companies are lower in Canada than the U.S., when all factors are considered -- benefits, exchange rate, and substantially lower health premiums.
--Deborah Sanborn is a freelance writer based in Toronto.
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