New evidence backs claims of questionable Dean Del Mastro donations

Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher, Postmedia News  Jun 27, 2012

OTTAWA — Two donors to Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro’s 2008 election campaign have produced copies of cheques they say were reimbursements paid by a small electrical company owned by his cousin.
The cheques show the donors each received $1,050 from Deltro Electric Ltd. of Mississauga, Ont., two days before they made $1,000 donations to Del Mastro’s electoral district association in Peterborough.
The donors also produced copies of the personal cheques they sent to the riding association in September 2008.
The cheques could be key pieces of evidence should Elections Canada extend its ongoing investigation of Dean Del Mastro’s 2008 campaign expenses to the donations that funded it. Under the Elections Act, it is a serious offence to conceal the real source of donations to an election campaign.
Deltro owner David Del Mastro has denied issuing any reimbursements to his cousin’s campaign contributors and says he only asked people to give voluntarily.
One of the cheques obtained by the Citizen is payable to a former Deltro employee who, earlier this month, signed a statutory declaration describing how Deltro staff were asked to enlist family and friends in the alleged reimbursement scheme.
David Del Mastro “advised me at that time that he wanted to make a large monetary donation to the re-election campaign of his cousin, Dean Del Mastro Member of Parliament,” the statement said.
“My employer assured me that if I would do so, my employer would cause his company, Deltro Electric Ltd., to reimburse me for the full sum of $1,000, plus a further bonus of $50, and that I would receive an income tax receipt for the donation.”

Provided

Cheque in the amount of $1,050 drawn on an account belonging to Deltro Electric, owned by MP Dean Del Mastro’s cousin, is alleged by the cheque’s recipient, a Deltro employee, to be reimbursement for a $1,000 donation to Del Mastro’s re-campaign. Images of this cheque and others were captured by the donors’ banks when they were deposited in ATM machines. At the Citizen’s request, the donors asked their bank to produce copies of these images.

The alleged scheme was intended to circumvent the limit on political donations, the former employee said. The Conservative government lowered the limit to $1,100 through their 2006 centrepiece ethics legislation, the Federal Accountability Act.
The statement listed the names of seven friends of family members of the employee who also participated in the scheme.
The employee also listed the names of 11 Deltro employees, their family members or friends of the owner who, Elections Canada records show, also all gave $1,000 to Del Mastro’s campaign or riding association.
The former employee and two other donors with the same story of donations and reimbursements spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Reached on his cellphone Wednesday, David Del Mastro said he had no comment and hung up before he could be asked about the cheques. He did not respond to a fax and email requesting comment.
He has previously denied he ever reimbursed anyone for giving money to his cousin’s campaign. Claims to the contrary were likely from a disgruntled former employee, he suggested.
He said it was reasonable to believe that 19 people would give so much money to a candidate running in a riding three hours away just because he asked. Four other people with ties to Deltro who donated $1,000 each, and were contacted by the Ottawa Citizen, have all said they gave voluntarily and were not reimbursed.
The cheques from Deltro do not indicate why they were issued. The “memo” field on both is left blank. Images of the cheques were captured by the donors’ banks when they were deposited in ATM machines. At the Ottawa Citizen’s request, the donors asked their bank to produce copies of these images.
The donors who provided the cheque images understand they face potential legal jeopardy by admitting participation in the alleged scheme. They hope Elections Canada will consider that they came forward voluntarily should the agency launch an investigation.
On the way into his party’s caucus meeting last week, Dean Del Mastro described a previous story about the alleged reimbursements as “silly.”
Asked for comment Wednesday, Del Mastro wrote in an email that “all donations to my campaigns have been received in the proper form, properly recorded and reported and receipts issued as per Elections Canada guidelines. Always have been, always will be.”
Elections Canada is investigating allegations that Del Mastro’s campaign exceeded its spending limit by hiring an Ottawa company to do $21,000 worth of voter identification and get-out-the-vote work.
According to court documents, Elections Canada has obtained a personal cheque that Del Mastro wrote to the company in that amount.
There is also an allegation, made by an Elections Canada investigator, that a document submitted to the agency by the Del Mastro campaign purporting to show a refund by the company was “a false document.”
Del Mastro insists his postelection filings were in order and has denied any wrongdoing.
He told a Peterborough TV station last week that he expects he will be cleared of any wrongdoing over his expenses and said he has the full support of the prime minister.
Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News

Elliot Lake averts becoming a national disgrace

Can you imagine the anguish of being one of the trapped survivors of this mall collapse and then learn that officials at Elliot Lake were prepared to abandon you and leave you to die? That would have been a national disgrace, especially for a country that rushes to the aid of similar disasters in far off places like Mexico and is only too happy to declare anyone who serves in the military as some form of instant overnight "hero" (although some in the military actually go on to earn that accolade)

Where are the heroes in Elliot Lake? Evidently there aren't any. What a pathetic display of protecting the public's interest on the part of Elliott Lake officials. Thank goodness others gave them a much needed wake up call.

Elliot Lake mall rescue efforts set to resume

'There must be some way … to help get these people out': café owner

CBC News

Posted: Jun 26, 2012 5:24 AM ET

Last Updated: Jun 26, 2012 8:28 AM ET

Read 66 comments66

Residents in Elliot Lake, Ont., take names of volunteers to enter the site of the collapsed roof at Algo Centre Mall, where one person has died and several are still unaccounted for in the rubble. Rescuers called off the search on June 25, but officials say they are resuming efforts after an appeal from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

Search and rescue efforts are to resume today at a partially collapsed mall in Elliot Lake, Ont., where one person has been confirmed dead, after officials drew the ire of local residents for calling the mission off and following an appeal from Premier Dalton McGuinty.
However, it remains uncertain when or how the search efforts will happen after emergency officials cautioned at a news conference Monday night that details of the operation remain uncertain.
"We're moving this forward as best we can and as fast as we can," said Elliot Lake fire Chief Paul Officer, adding that rescuers would consider "more extreme measures," including demolishing some areas of the badly damaged Algo Centre Mall.

'I believe we owe it to the families waiting for word of their loved ones to leave no stone unturned.'—Dalton McGuinty, Ontario premier

But Officer said rescue crews will be unable to reach the spot where breathing was detected underneath the rubble in the mall.
"The rules of engagement still haven't changed when it comes to allowing rescuers in there," he said. "Any plan we can come up with will have to be executed before we can hopefully get back in."
At least one person was killed — although no name has been released — after part of the building's roof caved in on Saturday afternoon, sending metal and concrete plunging two storeys to the mall floor.
The CBC's Natalie Kalata reported Tuesday morning that rescuers are trying to figure out a new way to reach anyone who may still be inside the mall, and that it's unknown whether this would be a rescue or recovery mission.
"People are on pins and needles," Kalata said.
"Last night, people were singing and holding up candlelight, and they were really hoping that somebody would be found alive inside," she said, adding that residents of the community are relieved that the search efforts will resume.
John Quinte, who owns a café in the mall, is among members of the community waiting to hear if friends and loved ones are safe after the roof's partial cave-in.
Quinte told CBC News on Tuesday morning that he narrowly escaped being caught in the dangerous circumstances because he went home before the roof's partial collapse. He said he has been camping out near the mall since the weekend because "everybody in this community is like family."
Quinte and other members of the community are frustrated by the slow pace of the rescue work.
"We don't want anybody to risk their life and die, but there must be some way that we can do something to help get these people out of here without risking everybody's life."

Number of missing unknown

Officials said they detected "signs of life" earlier Monday inside the mall but they did not know the status of that person when the search was called off later in the day.
Ontario Provincial Police Insp. Percy Jollymore said officers were still trying to determine how many people are missing.
A list of names submitted by concerned citizens has been fluctuating dramatically since the accident, he said, adding at least two have remained constant.
"We do have two names of people who are known to be in the mall," Jollymore said. "Their names have never disappeared on the list."
Rescue efforts were halted after the site was deemed too dangerous, with the possibility of another collapse, provoking anger among many residents who felt that officials could do more to help those trapped inside.
The news of the renewed effort — only hours after it was initially called off — came as McGuinty said he had spoken to Emergency Management Ontario and the search and rescue team. McGuinty said he asked if there was any other way to reach victims without endangering rescuers, including the use of equipment to dismantle the building from the outside.
"I believe we owe it to the families waiting for word of their loved ones to leave no stone unturned. We owe that to the people of Elliot Lake too. Ontarians expect nothing less," he said.

Residents protest at city hall

News that search efforts would resume was met with a chorus of screams and whistles Monday night from a group of residents who had gathered outside the mall in Elliot Lake, located 150 kilometres west of Sudbury.
Some people had protested in front of city hall when the search was initially called off. More than 50 people have added their names to a list of people willing to enter the building if the official operation doesn't happen, CBC's Lorenda Reddekopp reported.
In the aftermath of the collapse, many residents said the mall has had a history of problems dating back to 2005, including roof leaks, flooding and falling tiles.
Mall manager Rhonda Bear has said repairs were conducted on the building but not on the section that collapsed, adding that an engineering and structural study completed last month turned up nothing.
Elliot Lake mall collapse (CBC Infographic)

Dirty tricks: Nixon had his plumbers. Del Mastro prefers electricians

Employees linked to cousin's company each gave $1,000 to Del Mastro campaign

By GLEN MCGREGOR and STEPHEN MAHER, The Ottawa Citizen/Postmedia News June 16, 2012

OTTAWA — The prime minister’s embattled parliamentary secretary, Dean Del Mastro, received a series of $1,000 contributions to his 2008 election campaign from donors with ties to a small Mississauga electrical company owned by his cousin.
David Del Mastro, owner of Deltro Electric Ltd., denies any wrongdoing and says he fundraised on behalf of his cousin by asking employees and friends to contribute voluntarily. Four other people affiliated with the company and contacted by the Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News also support this denial.
But three donors to Del Mastro’s campaign or riding association, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say they were asked to make $1,000 donations and were reimbursed by Deltro for the full amount plus a $50 bonus.
“It was put, ‘We need to find some people to make $1,000 donations,’” said one former Deltro employee.
Numerous sections of the Elections Act forbid donors from exceeding the individual limit on donations by concealing their donations and forbid others from helping to conceal the real source of a donation.
In a statutory declaration produced at the request of the Citizen and Postmedia, the former employee said David Del Mastro approached the then-employee and said he wanted him to make a large monetary donation to his cousin’s campaign.
The former employee signed the declaration before an Ontario Commissioner of Oaths.
The former employee was asked to make a donation of $1,000 of personal funds and was assured the company would provide reimbursement for the same amount with a “$50 bonus,” the declaration says. The donors could also claim the donation as a deduction on their tax returns.
Employees were also asked to enlist friends or family to make similar donations, the former employee said.
There is no evidence that Dean Del Mastro had knowledge of any alleged scheme to hide the source of donations to his campaign.
The former employee’s declaration identifies a spouse and six friends who participated. Their names correspond with a list of $1,000 donors to Del Mastro’s campaign or riding associations during the election, as reported to Elections Canada.
“I believe that all of us were reimbursed in full by Deltro for the sum of $1,000 each, plus the $50 bonus each,” the declaration says.
“I also believe that none of us had any connection to the MP other than that his cousin, my employer, had asked me to obtain these various donations to MP’s election campaign.”
The former employee said another 12 names on Elections Canada’s lists of Del Mastro campaign and riding contributors were recognizable as current or past Deltro employees, or were friends or family members — though there is no indication any of these people were reimbursed for contributing.
Two other donors who gave $1,000 have links through social media websites to a Deltro staff member.
Reached on his cellphone Tuesday, David Del Mastro emphatically denied that he paid anyone to donate to his cousin’s election bid in Peterborough. “That’s a false accusation. I never paid them a dime. That’s false,” he said.

He confirmed that several people on the list of donors to the campaign have worked for Deltro, but said he simply asked people to contribute to help his cousin.
“I fundraised for him. I asked friends and family and everybody I knew if they would like to donate to his campaign,” he said.
“I went around to everybody and said, ‘Hey, can you all contribute to my cousin’s campaign? I would really appreciate it.’”
He said it was reasonable to believe that his employees volunteered to each give $1,000 to a candidate running for election in a riding three hours away.
“Why wouldn’t they?” he asked.
He said the allegation he funded the donations was likely advanced by a disgruntled former employee.
Del Mastro said he thought he had personally donated $1,000 to his cousin’s campaign, although the Citizen could find no record of this donation in Elections Canada’s database. He also said he went down to Peterborough to help with the campaign.
David Del Mastro refused to comment when contacted again on Friday.
Another person who contributed to Del Mastro’s campaign described being approached by a friend from Deltro and asked to make donation to the campaign in exchange for reimbursement of $1,050.
“I was pretty well just asked to do a favour and I got some money back,” the person said.
“It’s not costing me anything. I just put my signature on something and I get something back. I guess now it’s too good to be true.”
Another past employee described the same experience — making a donation to Del Mastro’s campaign and receiving a cheque from Deltro.
“I can’t remember who exactly who would have called me from the office, whether it was David or [another employee] and said we need you to write a cheque for this amount to this person and you’ll get this much — it will be covered with this much” — $1,050.
Under the Conservative government’s centrepiece ethics legislation, the Federal Accountability Act, the limit on political donations was lowered to $1,100.
The Elections Act prohibits donors colluding with others to “circumvent” the prohibition against an individual donor giving more than that amount to a candidate in an election.
Elections Canada records show that the Peterborough Conservative Electoral District Association received 12 donations in the amount of $1,000 each, dated Sept. 19, 2008, from people with links to the company, as described in the former employee’s statement.
Then, on Sept. 26, Del Mastro’s campaign received another seven donations of $1,000, also from people who were friends of Deltro employees, or friends or family, according to the former employee. Another friend of a Deltro employee donated $1,000 on Sept. 25.
Most of these donors are listed with addresses in Brampton or Toronto — nowhere near Dean Del Mastro’s Eastern Ontario riding of Peterborough.
There is no evidence that alleged reimbursements were paid to anyone other than friends of the former employee who swore the statement.
Four other Del Mastro donors with ties to Deltro, including two current employees, all denied they had taken any money from the company in exchange for the donations.

Reached at the company’s office in Mississauga, Deltro employee David Vogel said he gave to the campaign only because he believed Del Mastro was a good candidate.
“He’s a great guy. Why not? Why wouldn’t I?” Vogel said. “Somebody is a good person, would you want to hold back from them?”
Company controller Tori-Lynn Manchulenko also denied anyone was reimbursed and said she and others gave because the owner had asked them to.
“We’re a small company and it’s almost like a family and we did this because he asked.”
Larry Saunders also denied there was any compensation when his wife Maria, daughter-in-law Rachel and son Jeff, a Deltro general foreman, each gave $1,000.
Saunders said he donated because he had known Dean Del Mastro since he was a child and was also a friend of David Del Mastro.
Gary Teneycke, a friend of David Del Mastro, said he gave to the campaign because the Conservative candidate in his Etobicoke riding was up against then-Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff and had no hope of winning.
He said David Del Mastro never approached him about donating and he denied getting any reimbursement.
“It was my own idea,” Teneycke said. “You want me to swear on a Bible? I donated $1,000 to the Conservative Party I’ve supported all my life.”
Del Mastro did not reply to several emails asking about it this week, but party spokesman Fred DeLorey said in an email on Tuesday that the story is not true.
“We don’t comment on hearsay and something we know just isn’t true,” he said.
Del Mastro is the parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He also serves as the government’s lead spokesman defending allegations about the robocalls scandal and sits on the House of Commons ethics committee, and is currently under investigation by Elections Canada for alleged overspending in the same 2008 campaign.
He insists his campaign spending was entirely legal and has promised to produce documentary evidence to back up this claim.
On Wednesday, his lawyer, Jeffrey Ayotte, complained that Elections Canada investigators have declined to meet with Del Mastro unless the MP “is prepared to give a cautioned statement,” a legal phrase referring to a statement made after someone has been legally cautioned, as when police read a suspect their rights.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Harper throws Canadians under the proverbial omni-bus

 

Tory MPs defend decision to back omnibus bill

June 14, 2012 - 4:13am
By SELENA ROSS 
Chronicle Herald 

Nova Scotians at a series of protests Wednesday asked the province’s Conservative MPs to back away from their party’s omnibus budget bill.

British Columbia MP David Wilks, a Conservative, expressed anxieties over the bill last month and said many fellow Tory MPs shared his concerns about the mammoth budget, which includes more than 70 pieces of very different legislation, including major changes to employment insurance, Old Age Security, the fisheries and the environmental protection system.

But just hours before they went into a marathon voting session over the bill Wednesday, Nova Scotia’s MPs said they stand behind the bill and the process their party has chosen.

The onus is on the government to get its mandate through “as quickly and as succinctly as possible, so that we don’t end up in a position like we see European countries in now,” said Scott Armstrong (Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley).

“Many of these countries have 11 or 12 parties, some of them, and they get caught in gridlock and they can’t make the necessary changes. They can’t make the tough decisions they need to make in the middle of a recession. And when you’re in the middle of a recession, you need to take strong and bold action, and that’s what we're doing.”

The Speaker has allowed the bill, Armstrong said, and previous governments, most notably Paul Martin’s in 2005, introduced far-reaching omnibus budget bills.

“For the Liberals to criticize that, it’s a bit hypocritical,” said Armstrong. As for the NDP, he said the official Opposition finds every way to slow down Conservative legislation.

“That’s what they try to do every time we try to bring in legislation that’s good for the country,” he said. “This is why we have to use the tactics we use to get our agenda pushed through.”
Critics don’t accept the argument that omnibus budgets should be the new normal in the House of Commons. About 200 protesters gathered at Halifax’s Grand Parade on Wednesday, many holding signs saying “Stop C-38. Split C-38. Start Over.”

Smaller protests were planned at Conservative MP’s riding offices across the province, part of a string of similar events across the country.

“I’m disappointed in our politicians if they want to take on American-style politics where they use dirty tricks and questionable tactics to push their agenda,” said Greg Sutcliffe, a retired power engineer from Dartmouth who came to the Grand Parade.

“There’s a headline for each bill, if it’s done separately,” he said. “I would hope there’d be better media attention and the public would have the chance to be informed.”

A spokesman for the Central Nova MP, Defence Minister Peter MacKay, referenced Europe, as Armstrong did, when explaining why MacKay supports the omnibus approach. (MacKay was in the House and unavailable to comment himself.)

“As the global recovery remains fragile — especially in Europe —Canadians want their government to focus on what matters to them: the economy. That is exactly what this bill will accomplish,” the spokesman said.

Greg Kerr (West Nova) did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesman said he couldn’t speak on Kerr’s behalf.

Gerald Keddy (South Shore-St. Margarets) also didn’t respond to a request for comment. But when more than 60 protesters showed up at his Bridgewater office last week, he said the job cuts are “modest” and the omnibus bill is necessary to keep the economy from faltering, according to the South Shore Now newspaper.

“I would ask the question why this same group didn’t protest when the provincial NDP cut education and important interventions like reading recovery? Maybe they just hate education as much as they hate a balanced budget,” he wrote in an email to the newspaper.

Neither round of protests was organized by the NDP. The earlier one was co-ordinated by the Council of Canadians, and Wednesday’s was organized through LeadNow.ca, an online political forum.
(sross@herald.ca)

Thanks Scott Brison

Thanks Scott for your email concerning income disparity in Canada.

As for the issue of income disparity, the killing of income trusts by this government was a clear and deliberate act of exacerbating the income disparity that exists in this country. Income trusts allowed the average Canadian (ie the 99%) to earn a decent income from their investments for retirement income or other purposes, as opposed to being forced to speculate with common shares whose only return is the one tied to the vagaries of the marketplace.

The killing of income trusts was also clearly done at the behest of corporate CEOs and other members of the 1%, who felt threatened by the existence of the income trust model and the pressure that their true owners (ie shareholders) were exerting upon them to convert to the trust model. Conversion to the trust model would however have meant an end to the abusive CEO compensation practices of the corporate model (ie stock options, abusive pay practices not tied to business performance and no accountability to shareholders). That much was obvious from day one as follows. It only took someone as gullible and inexperienced as Jim Flaherty to fall for this line of self interested BS:

Income-trust crackdown: The inside story
Globe and Mail
November 2, 2006

High-profile directors and CEOs, meanwhile, had approached Mr. Flaherty personally to express their concerns: Many felt they were being pressed into trusts because of their duty to maximize shareholder value, despite their misgivings about the structure. Paul Desmarais Jr., the well-connected chairman of Power Corp. of Canada, even railed against trusts in a conversation with Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a trip to Mexico, and told him he should act quickly to stop the raft of conversions, according to sources.

From: Scott Brison
To: Brent Fullard
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:50:08 PM
Subject: House of Commons vote on Wednesday

Dear Brent,
The National Post newspaper published an article today that I wrote about a private members motion I introduced in the House of Commons that is expected to come to a vote this Wednesday.
The motion (M-315) simply asks that the finance committee undertake a study on income disparity and the growing inequality of opportunity in the country.
I believe the social costs of the problem are more costly than any of the measures that might address it.
I am also concerned that if people lose faith in the market-based economy that they could be drawn to politicians offering anti-market policies, which could be really bad for business.
You will find the article by clicking HERE.
A short five-minute video of my speech last week that concluded debate on the motion can be viewed HERE.

Warm regards,

Scott Brison, M.P.
Kings-Hants

Harper Flaherty comedy duo can't even do bailouts right

GM to close Oshawa plant, lay off up to 2,000: Union

Julia Johnson  Jun 1, 2012

OSHAWA, Ont. — General Motors Canada told employees Friday it will close an Oshawa, Ont. assembly plant next year, ceasing production of the old-generation Chevrolet Impala and Equinox at its Consolidated Line by phasing out operations.
The union representing auto workers at the plant said roughly 2,000 jobs will be lost due to the closure,  “As you can imagine it’s devastating,” said president of CAW local 222 Chris Buckley. “We have thousands of people that have been informed today that they are not going to have a job in one year’s time at a time when we have lost over 700,000 good paying jobs in this country.”
On the same day, General Motors Co. – the Canadian company’s parent – announced its highest U.S. sales in almost three years for the month of May at an increase of 11% year-over-year.
“GM’s sales in May were the highest in almost three years and we are poised to keep delivering good news for the U.S. economy with one of the most aggressive new product offenses in our history,” said Don Johnson, vice-president, U.S. sales operations, in a statement.
The auto union in Oshawa called the plant closure at a time when the company is finally rebounding from the auto crisis “offensive.”“It’s offensive. It’s down-right offensive. We helped save General Motors during the auto crisis. Our members had to make significant sacrifices in order to save this company and in turn save our retirees pension and the jobs we have,” Mr, Buckley said. “So at a time when the industry is starting to rebuild, at a time when GM for the first time in a long time is able to report profits, they should be reinvesting in their Canadian operations, not making them smaller.”
GM will take away its third factory shift at the Oshawa plant by the end of this year, followed by a removal of the second factory shift early next year and then total closure in June, the company said in a statement.
In 2005, GM had planned to shut down the line in 2008, but the company said demand for the Impala allowed operations to continue. In December 2011, it announced a $68-million investment into its Oshawa flex line plant to build the next generation of Impalas, which created 350 jobs.
Mr. Buckley said the investment was misleading, since the union had already bargained with GM to increase productions at Oshawa plants after GM shut down its truck plant in Oshawa in 2008. “When we bargained the truck plant closure agreement, we demanded that they give us replacement vehicles in the City of Oshawa,” Mr. Buckley said.
The new Impalas will be moved to the flex line, which currently employs 2,000 people and makes the Chevy Camaro, Buick Regal and soon, the Cadillac XTS.
The Impala will also be built at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in Michigan.
The union said the 2,000 imminent jobs lost is just the beginning, as the factory closure has a ripple effect. “When you look at the spin-off employment created as a result of auto assembly, the ratio is 1:9, so at the end of the day when the dust settles, potentially 18,000 people are going to lose their jobs as a result of GM’s decision,” ” Mr. Buckley said.
The job loss will hurt the local economy which is currently experiencing strong growth, according to the chair of the city’s Economic Development Committee John Aker. “It’s very important to the city. The city actually is in a very strong growth situation, an extremely strong growth situation,” Mr. Aker said
With more then 4,000 people working at General Motors, Mr. Aker said the car company is the largest single employer in the city with a population of 150,000.
“There will be a loss of, I believe, just over 2,000 jobs so that is extremely disappointing for the employees and extremely disappointing for the City of Oshawa,” Mr. Aker said.
Mr. Aker said the City of Oshawa is hoping GM and the union can come to an agreement to keep the plant in use and would like assistance from the provincial and federal governments if necessary.
“There may be an opportunity in negotiations this autumn between the CAW and General Motors, and perhaps with some input from the provincial government and perhaps the federal government, a new product can be awarded to the consolidated line,” said Mr. Aker.
But the union does not have any hope for continued operations at the plant. “General Motors has made it absolutely crystal clear that there will be no product put in that plant,” Mr. Buckley said.
GM is scaling back its overall operations in Canada as part of a North American restructuring begun two years ago under bankruptcy court protection.
That streamlining led to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs at the company’s Canadian and U.S. operations and the shutdown of several plants.
In 2008, GM Canada closed a truck plant in Oshawa and a transmission factory in Windsor, Ont.
GM Canada currently employs more than 9,000 people across the country. In its heyday, the automaker had more than twice that total and major operations in Oshawa, St. Catharines, Ont. and Windsor.
With files from the Canadian Press