{"id":18477,"date":"2017-09-29T20:48:39","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T00:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18477"},"modified":"2017-09-29T20:48:39","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T00:48:39","slug":"protecting-automotive-sector-backed-by-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/protecting-automotive-sector-backed-by-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting automotive sector backed by Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

A motion from Mayor Geoff Dawe calling on the Federal Government to speak up for the automotive sector in upcoming NAFTA talks received the backing of Council.
\nCouncil voted in favour of the Mayor\u2019s motion, which stems from his position on the Auto Mayors Caucus, calling on the powers-that-be to listen to the concerns of communities such as Aurora, which rely heavily on the auto sector, when wading into the thorny process of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. Government.
\nFollowing Council\u2019s endorsement, Aurora will send a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau underscoring the importance of the automotive industry to innumerable communities and sectors across the country.
\n\u201cThe automotive sector has been a vital part of the Canadian economy for almost a century,\u201d reads the draft letter which received Council\u2019s green light. \u201cMine is one of dozens of communities who benefit enormously from the growth, innovation and good, middle-class jobs supported by Canada\u2019s automotive industry. It is also one of dozens of communities whose residents are deeply concerned by the US government\u2019s announcement to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
\n\u201cIt is difficult to overstate the deep level of integration within the Canadian and American automotive sectors. This special economic relationship was first recognized in 1965 with the signing of the Canada-US Auto Pact. In 2016, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Michigan Governor Ric Snyder signed a Memorandum of Understanding calling for increased partnership and cooperation within our automotive sectors.
\n\u201cNAFTA governs nearly every aspect of the trade relationships within the Great Lakes manufacturing cluster. Even minor changes to those established relationships could have enormous consequences for jobs and economic growth on both sides of the Canada-US border.
\n\u201cThe automotive sector is far too important to be made anything but a key priority in upcoming NAFTA renegotiations. Over 101,000 Ontarians are directly employed in auto, and an estimated 300,000 additional jobs are created indirectly by the economic activity it supports nationwide. It represents Canada\u2019s largest manufacturing sector, Ontario\u2019s chief export, and the economic heart of dozens of communities like mine.\u201d
\nHere in Aurora, it is estimated nearly 2,000 local jobs are the direct result of the automotive sector including the Town being the head office for auto parts manufacturer Magna International and a number of off-shoot factories under that umbrella, along with Van-Rob Stamping and Axiom.
\nThese local ties were highlighted by Mayor Dawe in his pitch to Council last week, but Council opted to broaden the horizons of the letter.
\nRather than a simple letter to the Prime Minister, they suggested sending it to all municipalities through the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
\n\u201cI think the more municipalities get behind it, the more weight it comes to bear on those provincial and federal governments,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cFrom the experience Councillor Mrakas and I have had with OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) reform and getting other municipalities behind it, I think it can only further help the cause.\u201d
\nCouncillor Tom Mrakas agreed: \u201cI think it is great for us to move forward and I agree the more weight the better behind this and you will probably get better results.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A motion from Mayor Geoff Dawe calling on the Federal Government to speak up for the automotive sector in upcoming NAFTA talks received the backing of Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4O1","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 07:26:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}