Ontario fine-tunes recruiting strategy

TORONTO — The head of Canada's auto parts supplier association hopes Ontario's $30.4 million plan to boost innovation and worker training will help the province better compete with the U.S. and Mexico for investment.

Ontario also plans to change the way it markets greenfield plant sites.

The provincial government in February announced a "Driving Prosperity" plan with commitments that include $14.4 million over the next three years to pay for new company internships, and $2.4 million to create an online training portal. Also included is $7.6 million for a "modernization" program that offers smaller suppliers up to $100,000 Canadian to fund projects to make themselves more "productive, innovative and export-focused through the adoption of technology."

Ontario has faced headwinds in recruiting auto sector investment in the past few years. Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, which represents Canada's supply base, believes the incentives will help make Ontario more attractive.

He dismissed the notion that $30.4 million would do little to reverse Canada's sliding fortunes in automotive manufacturing, saying larger funds should be reserved for attracting automaker investments.

"If you have hundreds of millions of dollars, please use that with the OEMs, and then partner with us on skills and on production efficiency," Volpe said of the association's supplier members.

The plan comes as questions about the future of Canadian auto manufacturing have resurfaced in the wake of General Motors' decision to end production at the Oshawa assembly plant in Ontario by year end. According to the provincial government, Ontario's auto production has fallen 25 percent since 2000.

In another move, Ontario plans to overhaul how it markets greenfield sites to automotive companies. It intends to start a "Job Site Challenge," in which municipalities will propose greenfield manufacturing sites of 500 to 1,500 acres. Selected sites will receive government support in targeting the locations to potential investors.

In the past, provincial officials have offered potential investors multiple sites to consider to avoid playing favorites among local interests.

Volpe said the new approach will help Ontario better compete with southern U.S. states and Mexican states, where site consultants typically focus on marketing a specific piece of property to an interested industry investor.

"In Ontario, not only are we the northernmost and, in some cases, perceived to be the most costly, but you have a provincial government pitching the province but not the site," he said. Officials try "to be careful to balance all the different municipal interests.

"Well, site selectors like to create kind of binary proposals for their OEM customers. If you're not highlighting a site in Ontario, you're creating gray."

Todd Smith, Ontario's minister of economic development, job creation and trade, said in a statement that the new plan is "just the first step" in working with the industry.

"Going forward," Smith said, "we will continue working with the sector, as well as municipalities and the federal government, on longer-term priorities."