Growing up in Thunder Bay during the 1980s and 1990s, I witnessed the disruption that industrial job losses bring to workers and their families.
asserted
losses → grow → workers
Major restructuring in the forestry sector led to the loss of well-paying jobs that had sustained middle-class livelihoods directly and indirectly.
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that → lead → livelihoods
Between 1981 and 2001, Thunder Bay’s employment in forestry manufacturing fell by 40 percent.
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employment → fall → percent
A Statistics Canada study found that the city’s overall employment declined by 9 percent during the 1990s alone.
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employment → find → 1990s
I thought about my hometown watching this week’s political response to Stellantis’s agreement to sell its idled Brampton assembly plant to Roshel, a Canadian armoured-vehicle manufacturer.
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hometown → think → Roshel
The uncertainty facing the approximately 2,200 laid-off workers awaiting a return to work would be familiar to many families in Thunder Bay.
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uncertainty → face → Bay
They, of course, deserve sympathy and fair treatment.
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They → deserve → sympathy
But workers who’ve experienced comparable dislocation elsewhere could reasonably wonder why these particular jobs have received such extraordinary political attention.
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jobs → experience → attention
Forestry workers back home, hotel housekeepers in Vancouver, restaurant workers in Halifax, and countless others also support their families and communities.
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workers → support → families
Their livelihoods matter too.
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livelihoods → matter → ?
Canadian politics, put bluntly, is too beholden to the auto sector.
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politics → put → sector
The Stellantis episode illustrates both its oversized influence and the unhealthy relationship that’s developed between the industry and our governments.
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that → illustrate → industry
Decisions about production, investment and employment have become so politicized—so detached from market forces—that even a potentially beneficial transaction is treated as something to be adjudicated by politicians.
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transaction → become → politicians
A lifeline is treated as a betrayal
Recall that the Brampton plant ceased production in December 2023.
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plant → treat → December
Stellantis’s subsequent plan to retool it for Jeep Compass production failed to materialize.
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plan → retool → production
Meanwhile, the remaining laid-off workers reportedly receive income support equivalent to approximately 70 percent of their regular pay.
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workers → remain → pay
Roshel now proposes acquiring the idle facility and returning it to productive industrial use.
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Roshel → propose → use
Yet this prospective lifeline has been treated as a great injustice.
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lifeline → treat → injustice
Unifor president Lana Payne has called the sale the “worst-case scenario.”
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Payne → call → sale
Prime Minister Mark Carney described it as a “betrayal.”
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Carney → describe → betrayal
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has even demanded the dismissal of Industry Minister Mélanie Joly.
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Poilievre → demand → Joly
Across party lines, the overriding assumption seems to be that a factory which once assembled cars must continue assembling cars, and that governments must do whatever it takes to sustain it.
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it → seem → it
Yet it shouldn’t be controversial to say that there’s nothing written in stone that this particular property must remain an auto assembly plant, or that Canada itself must maintain a particular share of automotive production and employment.
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Canada → say → production
Capitalism depends on allowing assets and workers to shift toward new opportunities as old businesses falter.
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businesses → depend → opportunities
An idle factory finding a prospective new owner is the creative part of Schumpeterian creative destruction.
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factory → find → destruction
Whatever one thinks of Stellantis and the subsidies that it has received (discussed below), blocking the sale of the facility to Roshel won’t, by itself, restore a single job.
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blocking → think → job
Roshel executives have actually said that they intend to prioritize Brampton residents in general and former Stellantis workers in particular for hiring.
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they → say → hiring
The transaction therefore offers a prospect of renewed employment, though on different terms.
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transaction → offer → terms
Preserving productive employment in Brampton and preserving these precise jobs—including their compensation structure and union representation—shouldn’t be conflated as the same goal.
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Preserving → preserve → goal
Unifor, it must be said, has an institutional interest here that may not align with the public interest.
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that → say → interest
Roshel is non-unionized, and Payne has expressed concern about keeping the workforce unionized under a different owner.
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workforce → express → owner
Workers who find employment at Roshel may earn less and receive less generous benefits than they did at Stellantis.
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they → find → Stellantis
There may be a role for public policy—I’ve written favourably about temporary wage subsidies, for instance—to ease that transition.
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policy → write → transition
But just because a previous job paid more doesn’t mean that governments should indefinitely underwrite its compensation.
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governments → pay → compensation
If the underlying production cannot commercially sustain those arrangements, political insistence on preserving them imposes costs on others.
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insistence → sustain → others
Sean Speer critiques the disproportionate political influence of the Canadian auto sector, highlighting the recent sale of Stellantis’s Brampton plant to Roshel as a case study.
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Speer → critique → study
Speer argues that the focus on preserving specific auto jobs overlooks the needs of workers in other industries.
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focus → argue → industries
He calls for a shift away from government subsidies and political intervention in the sector, advocating for market-driven decisions.
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He → call → decisions
The piece emphasizes the importance of allowing industries to adapt and evolve without undue political pressure, suggesting that the current approach is unsustainable and detrimental to broader economic interests.
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approach → emphasize → interests
The Aporia
