General Motors To Invest In Oshawa R&D

The closing of the Oshawa Consolidated Line supposedly had GM in the bailout doghouse – the company was supposed to maintain a certain level of production in Canada according to the terms of their bailout package. As far as we know, GM hasn't replenished that yet, but they are throwing the Canadian federal and Ontario governments a bone by investing an undisclosed nine-figure sum into R&D at Oshawa. A report in The Globe and Mail explains the funding increase "One of the promises GM Canada made to the two governments in 2009 was that it would spend about $1-billion on research and development projects between then and 2016…The projects to be initiated or expanded between now and 2016 are expected to focus on environmental technologies, electric vehicles, vehicle weight reduction and so-called intelligent transportation systems." Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGunity are expected to be in attendance, though the recent string of gun deaths in Toronto will likely dominate the media scrum. That means that nobody will ask GM how it plans on meeting other bailout conditions, like "As part of its 2009 commitments, GM Canada also agreed that its Canadian plants would produce 16 per cent of the vehicles General Motors Co. assembled in North America between 2009 and 2016…a fuel-efficient transmission at its St. Catharines, Ont., operation and… assembly of five new vehicles in Oshawa or Ingersoll during the same period." from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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