Justin Trudeau réagit devant le parlement (en anglais)

Justin Trudeau réagit à la fermeture de l'usine GM d'Oshawa

[News that car manufacturer GM is closing Oshawa factory sends shock waves through Canada] The news in the US that car manufacturer GM is closing five factories and laying off 14 000 people was sending shock waves in Canada as well. GM will end the assembling of vehicles at its Oshawa plant a year from now. The Prime Minister says he's spoken with the C-E-O of G-M to express his disappointment. Justin Trudeau says he talked to Ontario Premier Doug Ford too. He says the federal government wants to work with the province to support the community of Oshawa.The Conservatives have called for an emergency debate.That's scheduled to happen in the House of Commons tonight. SOUNDBITE (English) Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada: “Our thoughts are with those whose jobs will be affected and their families. We understand today’s news will have a significant impact on the full community, as well as the network of suppliers and support. All the plant’s impacted by GM’s announcement. Our government will always stand with our auto workers and we will do everything we can to support them in these difficult times.” (Applause) SOUNDBITE (English) Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada: “Mr. Speaker, last night I spoke with the CEO and chair of GM, Mary Barra, to tell how disappointed we were with this decision. And this morning I spoke with Premier Ford, to talk about how we were going to work together to support the workers in Oshawa and across the region. How we are going to be affected by this decision. We will be working together on this one in a way that is not political, because we know that being there to support the workers in this region is what people expect of all of their orders of government.” SOUNDBITE (English) Zachary Way, GM Worker: “Me, my brother and my father work there so it will be pretty horrible for the whole family. It’ll certainly be rough. I will obviously be looking for new work after that and it’ll be an interesting few weeks if nothing else.” SOUNDBITE (English) GM Worker: “I’ve been here 28 years. I’ve been through a closure in Scarborough, I’ve been through a closure in London, I’ve moved my family twice for this company. And they do this to me. (Chokes up.) It’s terrible.” WS: Exterior of plant MS: General Motors sign CU: GM sign MS: Oshawa Car Assembly Plant sign MS, through fence: Exterior of plant, employees exiting Right pan employees exiting, walking down stairs CU, various: Employees exiting building MS: Employee walking towards parking lot SOUNDBITE (English) Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario: “I received a phone call yesterday afternoon to advise us. The first thing I said to him: Is there anything we can do as a province, absolutely anything? And I asked him numerous times, and the answer was: No, there is nothing. Basically the ship has already left the dock. They didn’t ask for anything – so: are we disappointed? Yes, we are disappointed in GM.” SOUNDBITE (English) Navdeep Bains, Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Development: “The decision that General Motors has made is one of restructuring. So, this isn’t the only plant that’s being closed. They are closing other plants in North America and globally as well. So this is part of the overall globally restructuring plan. From my perspective, we’ll continue to engage with them and work with them. We’ve introduced the Strategic Innovation Fund that you are familiar with, that we also announced in the fall economic update. We’ve used that fund to support Toyota, Honda, (inaudible) and Ford, for example. We are willing to work with the automotive sector. We’ve made those investments in the past as well. But as this stage the company has made a decision based on their global restructuring program.”