The Alstom plant in Thunder Bay will be responsible for the final assembly of new subway cars for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), each featuring 55 per cent Canadian content.
On Thursday, both the provincial and federal governments announced they would increase their funding for the contract from around $750 million to nearly $1 billion; the total contract value stands at about $2.3 billion.
“Given everything that is happening across the United States, across the world, we stepped in to say this contract has to go to Thunder Bay,” Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said at the Thunder Bay plant on Thursday morning.
“We’ve got to build this in Ontario and we’ve got to support our economy,” he stated. “It’s got to be Ontario workers in Ontario companies first.”
Sarkaria mentioned that the additional funding is aimed at ensuring that these new cars contain 55 per cent Canadian content.
WATCH | TTC contract brings boost to Thunder Bay Alstom plant:
TTC contract brings boost to Thunder Bay’s Alstom plant
The Thunder Bay Alstom facility is gearing up for a significant project with the Toronto Transit Commission. The new trains will be constructed with 55 per cent Canadian content, following an increase in provincial and federal funding from $758 million to almost $1 billion for this initiative.
“Sometimes you have to pay more for that, but that’s OK because we’re supporting Canadian jobs,” he said. “We’re supporting Ontario workers, Ontario jobs.”
Federal Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson highlighted how essential it is for Canada to invest in its own workforce and supply chains amid ongoing trade tensions with the U. S.
“We do know that we can put our people to work building the infrastructure we need here in Canada,” he noted. “I’m the housing minister as well as infrastructure, and we’ve got to build homes across Canada that are affordable.
“Canadian jobs, Canadian materials, again, that’s a big focus for our government. Across the whole government now, we have a buy Canadian initiative, and we want to maximize the upside for Canada.”
Alstom will manage every aspect of this project under its sole-source agreement with the TTC; designs will be created at an Alstom site in Quebec before being assembled at Thunder Bay and tested at another facility in Kingston, according to Michael Keroulle, president and CEO of Alstom Americas.
“It’s gonna take a few years,” he explained. “We have to go through the development phase of the project.”
“We’ve started that already,” Keroulle added. “It’s going to take around two years to actually go through development, get the design validated by the agency, the TTC.”
Alstom stated that this contract covers constructing 70 six-car subway train sets. Fifty-five of these trains will serve on Toronto’s Line 2 while 15 will operate on future TTC subway extensions.</P
The agreement also includes options for up to 150 extra trainsets if necessary.</P
The province indicated that this deal would provide support for 240 manufacturing jobs within Thunder Bay.</P
Justin Roberts, president of Unifor Local 1075-which represents employees at Thundery Bay’s plant-expressed optimism about how this contract could enable rehiring laid-off workers along with creating new positions.</P
“It’s some job security for those who are here now,” Roberts shared. “It’ll be job security for those who come when they’re hired. You can make some plans because it’s not going be a small gig. It’ll be a long-term gig.”</P![]()
Justin Roberts is president of Unifor Local 1075 which represents workers at Thunder Bay’s Alstom plant (Marc Doucette/CBC)
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TTC contract brings boost to Thunder Bay’s Alstom plant
The Thunder Bay Alstom facility is gearing up for a significant project with the Toronto Transit Commission. The new trains will be constructed with 55 per cent Canadian content, following an increase in provincial and federal funding from $758 million to almost $1 billion for this initiative.
“Sometimes you have to pay more for that, but that’s OK because we’re supporting Canadian jobs,” he said. “We’re supporting Ontario workers, Ontario jobs.”
Federal Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson highlighted how essential it is for Canada to invest in its own workforce and supply chains amid ongoing trade tensions with the U. S.
“We do know that we can put our people to work building the infrastructure we need here in Canada,” he noted. “I’m the housing minister as well as infrastructure, and we’ve got to build homes across Canada that are affordable.
“Canadian jobs, Canadian materials, again, that’s a big focus for our government. Across the whole government now, we have a buy Canadian initiative, and we want to maximize the upside for Canada.”
Alstom will manage every aspect of this project under its sole-source agreement with the TTC; designs will be created at an Alstom site in Quebec before being assembled at Thunder Bay and tested at another facility in Kingston, according to Michael Keroulle, president and CEO of Alstom Americas.
“It’s gonna take a few years,” he explained. “We have to go through the development phase of the project.”
“We’ve started that already,” Keroulle added. “It’s going to take around two years to actually go through development, get the design validated by the agency, the TTC.”
Alstom stated that this contract covers constructing 70 six-car subway train sets. Fifty-five of these trains will serve on Toronto’s Line 2 while 15 will operate on future TTC subway extensions.</P
The agreement also includes options for up to 150 extra trainsets if necessary.</P
The province indicated that this deal would provide support for 240 manufacturing jobs within Thunder Bay.</P
Justin Roberts, president of Unifor Local 1075-which represents employees at Thundery Bay’s plant-expressed optimism about how this contract could enable rehiring laid-off workers along with creating new positions.</P
“It’s some job security for those who are here now,” Roberts shared. “It’ll be job security for those who come when they’re hired. You can make some plans because it’s not going be a small gig. It’ll be a long-term gig.”</PThe contract should keep operations running at least seven or ten years ahead,” according to Roberts.
He also appreciated seeing cars built with such high levels of Canadian content.”
“We’ve been fighting for a Canadian content increase for decades around here,” he remarked.” So it’s great news hearing the government finally doing it.”
P”<Let's set the precedent of making this the way forward in Canada,” he added.Marcus Powlowski MP representing thunder bay-Rainy River expressed his happiness regarding how things turned out.“<The future of his place was really uncertain just some years ago,” Powlowski shared.”For me personally I feel relieved knowing there’s job stability.”Source link
