The Toronto Star contends that Premier Dalton McGuinty’s $500 million auto-investment fund (nearly half of which went to General Motors) was money well-spent, and speculates on what the industry might look like today had the provincial government not forked over taxpayers’ money to secure $7 billion in new automotive investment – thereby enabling Ontario to overtake Michigan as North America’s No. 1 auto producer.

Your editorial conveniently neglects to mention the fact that much of that $7 billion in investment and increased production came from new automobili Canadian auto manufacturers like Honda and Toyota, which, instead of laying off workers, are expanding their workforce and providing new jobs without the benefit of direct government handouts.

Your defence of the Ontario government’s decision to provide corporate welfare with no strings attached to the Big Three automakers is somewhat misguided and short-sighted. McGuinty’s plan has only enabled uncompetitive vehicle manufacturers and overpaid CAW workers to continue building gas-guzzling, smog-producing behemoths that nobody wants for a couple of more years, and has only served to postpone the inevitable decline of these dinosaurs.

Paul MacDonald, Toronto

Premier defensive as GM

slashes jobs

Business, May 13

After just completing our income-tax returns and seeing exactly how much money goes to the federal and provincial governments, most of us will find it’s very difficult for folks to just “look beyond the headlines,” as Premier Dalton McGuinty advises.

When the city has to pay for downloaded provincial responsibilities, when public transit is underfunded, when many insist that health-care expenses are excessive and not sustainable, and when 1,400 more General Motors workers face layoffs, it is very hard to listen to the premier after Ontario taxpayers have handed $235 million to GM.

Instead, let’s give this money to university think-tanks and research institutes to find products and economically sustainable methods that would allow Ontario to excel in the global economy.

McGuinty should look past the headlines himself and realize that the future is not in handing out large amounts of public funds to overpaid CEOs at GM’s corporate offices, but to fund public institutions that have made Ontario such a valuable jurisdiction for the private sector to invest in, like education, health care and livable cities that are not congested with publicly subsidized SUVs.

Brad M. McLeod, Toronto

Instead of building vehicles in Ontario that no one wants to buy, perhaps this province should take the lead in producing more fuel-efficient or hybrid cars.

Premier Dalton McGuinty, with the help of the federal government, should encourage auto manufacturers to make vehicles auto d’epoca that are needed for the future, not for the past. Both Ottawa and Queen’s Park should be financially supporting new transportation technology that is good for the economy, the environment and the workers of Ontario.

Or are they more interested in collecting their share of the profits in the form of gasoline taxes?