Ottawa and Ontario to name former Toyota executive as auto czar
Ray Tanguay, former Chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Canada in Woodstock, Ontario, Friday, August 5, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley
The federal and Ontario governments will appoint Ray Tanguay, the recently retired chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc., as their special adviser on the auto sector.
The appointment of Tanguay, who retired last month after rising through the ranks of the auto maker to become president of the Canadian manufacturing operations and the highest ranking non-Japanese executive at its parent company, will be announced Tuesday in Toronto, multiple industry sources said.
Tanguay will have his own set of advisers in the form of a committee consisting of members of the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council. The Council is a joint industry-labour group set up by the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments more than a decade ago when Canada's auto sector was bypassed as billions of dollars of investment flooded into southern U.S. states.
The appointment of Tanguay will be announced by federal Industry Minister James Moore and Ontario Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid in Toronto.
Spokesmen for the two ministers would not comment Monday.
CAPC, as the group is known, recommended last year that the two governments establish an automotive strategy board or investment office to fight the same challenge-landing investments by new auto makers not already making vehicles in Canada.
That recommendation came as Mexico replaced the U.S. South as the destination for billions of dollars in new auto investment, although Mexico's winning streak was broken last month when Volvo Cars said it will build a new, US$500-million assembly plant in South Carolina.
Most of the members of CAPC, which includes the presidents of the Canadian units of the five auto makers that assemble vehicles in Canada, as well as Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the union that represents hourly paid workers at three of those companies, look on new investment in "an altruistic way," one industry source said Monday.
"I think they all recognize that we need a win," the source said.
Ontario was recently rejected as a location for a Jaguar Land Rover assembly plant. Officials of the UK-based company visited Ontario and a site in Windsor, Ont., before deciding that they need to build vehicles in a low-cost location to offset high-cost manufacturing in Britain.
The last investment Canada won was spearheaded by Tanguay, who was instrumental in convincing his bosses at Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan to build a new assembly plant in Woodstock, Ont.
The Toyota plant-the second Toyota vehicle assembly facility in the country-opened officially in December, 2009, in the trough of the recession that sent Chrysler LLC and General Motors Co. into chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That led to contributions by the federal and Ontario governments of more than C$13 billion to the bailout of those two companies.
Tanguay is given much of the credit for the expansion of Toyota that has taken it from an initial factory built in 1988 and capable to building 50,000 vehicles a year, to its present status as the manufacturer of about one-quarter of the vehicles assembled in Canada last year.
Workers at the two Toyota plants assembled 579,411 cars and crossover utility vehicles last year.
The original plant, in Cambridge, Ont., was the first plant in the Toyota system to be given a mandate to build models for the company's luxury Lexus line of vehicles, which is considered a high honour within Toyota.
The appointment of Tanguay, who retired last month after rising through the ranks of the auto maker to become president of the Canadian manufacturing operations and the highest ranking non-Japanese executive at its parent company, will be announced Tuesday in Toronto, multiple industry sources said.
Tanguay will have his own set of advisers in the form of a committee consisting of members of the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council. The Council is a joint industry-labour group set up by the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments more than a decade ago when Canada's auto sector was bypassed as billions of dollars of investment flooded into southern U.S. states.
The appointment of Tanguay will be announced by federal Industry Minister James Moore and Ontario Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid in Toronto.
Spokesmen for the two ministers would not comment Monday.
CAPC, as the group is known, recommended last year that the two governments establish an automotive strategy board or investment office to fight the same challenge-landing investments by new auto makers not already making vehicles in Canada.
That recommendation came as Mexico replaced the U.S. South as the destination for billions of dollars in new auto investment, although Mexico's winning streak was broken last month when Volvo Cars said it will build a new, US$500-million assembly plant in South Carolina.
Most of the members of CAPC, which includes the presidents of the Canadian units of the five auto makers that assemble vehicles in Canada, as well as Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, the union that represents hourly paid workers at three of those companies, look on new investment in "an altruistic way," one industry source said Monday.
"I think they all recognize that we need a win," the source said.
Ontario was recently rejected as a location for a Jaguar Land Rover assembly plant. Officials of the UK-based company visited Ontario and a site in Windsor, Ont., before deciding that they need to build vehicles in a low-cost location to offset high-cost manufacturing in Britain.
The last investment Canada won was spearheaded by Tanguay, who was instrumental in convincing his bosses at Toyota Motor Corp. in Japan to build a new assembly plant in Woodstock, Ont.
The Toyota plant-the second Toyota vehicle assembly facility in the country-opened officially in December, 2009, in the trough of the recession that sent Chrysler LLC and General Motors Co. into chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That led to contributions by the federal and Ontario governments of more than C$13 billion to the bailout of those two companies.
Tanguay is given much of the credit for the expansion of Toyota that has taken it from an initial factory built in 1988 and capable to building 50,000 vehicles a year, to its present status as the manufacturer of about one-quarter of the vehicles assembled in Canada last year.
Workers at the two Toyota plants assembled 579,411 cars and crossover utility vehicles last year.
The original plant, in Cambridge, Ont., was the first plant in the Toyota system to be given a mandate to build models for the company's luxury Lexus line of vehicles, which is considered a high honour within Toyota.
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