Closed Sterling plant could be going green

Former Sterling Truck plant in St. Thomas

A deal is in the works to turn the closed-down Sterling Truck plant in St. Thomas into a green energy manufacturer, the area’s MP says.

A national Canadian manufacturer has signed a memorandum of agreement to share technology with another industry that develops green energy platforms, including solar energy, with the intention to manufacture at the St. Thomas plant, MP Joe Preston (PC — Elgin-Middlesex-London) said yesterday.

“We are not at the point where we can say it will happen,” Preston cautioned. “But memorandums of agreements have been signed. There is interest out there. It feels good. We have to start sharing any good news, anything that is positive.”

The new manufacturer has “elements of many different types of green energy,” but solar panel production is a big part of it, he said.

London seeking $150 million offered Ford Canada’s St. Thomas Assembly Plant

Posted by Ian: St. Thomas and Elgin county lose the Ford plant and as a result the economic impact will be compounded via support operations like Lear Seating, trucking companies and CN who relied heavily on the St. Thomas Assembly Plant and yet London wants the entire $150 million offered by the province for its own benefit. It’s bad enough we have to deal with the London-centered school board and St. Joseph’s Health Centre for psychiatric services. However, you can ask the question, why didn’t St. Thomas staff and administration beat London to the punch? Or is that because they have no long-term economic plan in place. Where is the Economic Development Corp. and the Chamber of Commerce in this dark chapter? London is taking concrete steps to diversify its economy (read agri-business and digital media), while in St. Thomas we’re still trying to entice an automaker to locate here. Following is the full story from the London Free Press …

The City of London is going after $150 million the Ontario government is believed to have offered to save Ford of Canada’s St. Thomas assembly plant, Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best said.

The city and region could use the cash to fund a host of ambitious economic development schemes, she said.

“We continue to be impacted in a severe way. If there is money for the plant, then surely there must be money to invest in initiatives we are looking at.”

Ford Motor Co. will close the St. Thomas plant in September 2011, cutting 1,600 jobs when it ends production of the Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand Marquis and Crown Victoria.
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Ontario’s economy cannot prosper without a vigorous manufacturing sector

Formet Industries, St. Thomas

Posted by Ian:
Thanks to Serge Lavoie for the heads up on this positive look at this region’s manufacturing base. With plants and factories shuttered the length of South Edgeware and the Ford plant teetering, let’s hope that indeed the industrial engine is just idling.
So, here is the key question posed by the Toronto Star:

Without a revitalized manufacturing base, Ontario has little chance of a healthy economic recovery that delivers the good jobs and high productivity we need for sustainable prosperity.

So a key question as we face a federal election some time in the next 12 months is which party, Conservative or Liberal, can deliver the most effective manufacturing strategy for the province.
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Small towns contributing to their own demise

An exodus of young people seeking education, adventure and success in bigger cities, combined with economic upheaval that has left little opportunity for those who stayed behind, has resulted in a dramatic “hollowing out” of North America’s small communities. And worse, by not adapting to this new reality, small towns are playing a big part in their own demise.

Other regions and communities have created incentives designed to draw back their educated young people. Aniko Varpalotai, a professor specializing in rural education at the University of Western Ontario, says St. Thomas, the town she lives in just outside of London, Ont., has used tuition relief and housing benefits to entice several of the medical students who passed through its hospital to stay. In different areas of the U.S., Carr found free land programs, student loan forgiveness and attempts to improve cultural amenities.

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Mayors suspend resolution to retaliate against Buy American

Canada’s mayors are withdrawing their threat to boycott suppliers from the United States in retaliation of the Buy American laws.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities says it won’t enact a resolution passed in June because municipal leaders see progress in talks between the two countries.

In a statement Saturday, federation president Basil Stewart said the mayors want to give negotiators in the talks the time and space to reach a successful conclusion.

“We are encouraged by the talks now under way between Canadian and U.S. officials and want to give them the time and space to reach a successful outcome,” he said.

“These talks can and should lead to a fair and mutually-beneficial agreement.”
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Reinventing the rural economy

An economic alliance is growing in the sandy areas of Southwestern Ontario where tobacco once reigned.

“We’re trying to reinvent the rural economy,” Aylmer Mayor Bob Habkirk said yesterday, just before Middlesex County council endorsed turning the Southern Central Ontario Region (SCOR) into an incorporated not-for-profit body.

The intent is to make sure about one million hectares of agricultural land regains its spot as one of the most fertile economic drivers in the region.

The partnership that has approved the group’s new strategic plan includes Middlesex, Norfolk, Elgin and Brant counties, with Oxford’s official endorsement expected today. All five partners have been working towards SCOR’s incorporation for a little more than a year.
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An improved Employment Insurance program would provide a better stimulus to the economy

OTTAWA – An improved Employment Insurance program would provide a better
stimulus to the economy than anything the federal government has tried so
far, says Canadian Labour Congress President Ken Georgetti.

He was responding to the release by Statistics Canada of labour force
figures for June 2009, when a net of 47,500 workers lost their full-time
jobs. There are now about 1.6 million unemployed Canadians, an unemployment rate of 8.6%. Fewer than half of the unemployed are actually collecting benefits due to rules, regulations and obstructions embedded in the EI system.

If it walks and squawks like a carbon tax, it is a carbon tax

By Ben Eisen
Policy Analyst
Frontier Centre for Public Policy

During the last federal election, the Conservatives skewered then Liberal leader Stephan Dion’s proposed carbon tax as a “tax on everything.” The Tories argued such a policy would place a significant strain on household budgets, curb economic growth, and contribute almost nothing towards the stated goal of the policy – to combat global warming.

In all this, the Conservatives were correct. Unfortunately, their alternative of a “carbon market,” some details of which were given recently, will produce all of the same negative consequences as a carbon tax, with a few additional problems on top.

Canadian mayors pass resolution to shut out U.S. bidders from local contracts

Canadian municipalities hope they are helping the federal government make a case against the Obama Administration’s “Buy American” policy, passing a resolution Saturday that would potentially shut out U.S. bidders from city contracts.

Delegates at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference narrowly passed the resolution 189 -175.
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Buy American retaliation will hurt everyone

Posted by Ian:
Earlier this year a trade unionist spokesman appeared before St. Thomas council urging them to support a Buy Canadian purchasing agenda. Our elected officials wisely declined and here is why such a protectionist stance is dangerous.

Retaliating against U.S. states and cities for adopting Buy American measures is like throwing a grenade in a confined space, says Trade Minister Stockwell Day.

“Everyone gets hurt,” Day told a Canadian Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday.

Day said he was concerned to hear a group of Canadian municipalities want to bar companies in protectionist countries from bidding on procurement contracts in Canada.
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Understanding Prosperity Without Growth

“The truth is that there is as yet no credible, socially just, ecologically sustainable scenario of continually growing incomes for a world of 9 billion people.”

This rather terrifying quote is from “Prosperity without growth? The transition to a sustainable economy,” published by the Sustainable Development Commission, the U.K. government’s sustainability watchdog. The report is the result of a year-long inquiry by the commission led by Professor Tim Jackson, who has been developing the basic concept across his entire career.
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