Automotive News Canada - November 2020 - 10

OPINION

11.20

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Investments didn't No COVID survival 'playbook,'
just fall from the sky so Canada's dealers wrote one
JEFF MELNYCHUK | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
FIVE YEARS AGO THIS MONTH, WE LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR
Automotive News Canada amid a lingering question of just how much
news there really would be to report. Frankly, no one knew for sure.
As a Canadian journalist with more than 25 years experience at the
time, even I didn't know because covering the full scope of the Canadian
auto industry was new.
Five years later, there's no doubt as to the answer.
The November issue reports on what is likely the biggest news since
we began publishing: The pledge of nearly $5
billion for Detroit Three plants in Canada, which
The real story of the - with a Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
commitment to build electric vehicles - should
nearly $5 billion in
considered a reboot of sorts. Instead of an
plant investments is be
industry slowly heading south like a melting icethe hard work put in berg, there's overnight optimism. Instead of
there's an attitude that anything is possiby the automakers, worry,
ble. It's a 180-degree about-face in mindset.
Unifor and the
This is bolstered of course by Honda and
Toyota
plants, considered pillars of the
federal and Ontario
Canadian industry.
governments, and
Indeed $5 billion is a big number to get
one's head around, but the supplier spin-off -
many others. Their
in terms of jobs and investment - will
efforts may well have both
also be massive and we expect to cover significhanged the course cant developments in the coming weeks and
months.
of the Canadian
Most immediately, General Motors was set
auto industry.
to begin retooling the idled Oshawa Assembly
plant to build Chevrolet and GMC pickups as
soon as the three-year contract was ratified by Unifor members, which
has happened. There will be plenty to report
during the ramp-up to the first pickup scheduled
to arrive in 2022, and by then we'll be reporting
more on the multibillion-dollar investments
affecting the FCA Windsor and Ford Oakville
plants.
But here's the big question: How did this
turnabout happen? Who decided that Oshawa
Assembly should come back online and why?
And how did the news of the end of production
of the Ford Edge in Oakville turn into a nearly
$2-billion investment to build electric vehicles
there?
Regarding Ford, the answer is on Pages 8, 9
and 26 as reporter John Irwin details an intricate
backstory that begins with Jerry Dias finding out
from an Automotive News Canada story that
there were no product plans for Oakville beyond
Some of the key
2023. The chain of events that led to an EV
commitment from Ford is incredible enough, but players who made
the players involved, the timing of their interac- possible the nearly
$2-billion Ford
tions and the improved relationship between
investment in
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario
Oakville. Their story
Premier Doug Ford because of the COVID-19
begins on Page 8.
pandemic all made the deal possible. The whirlwind of discussions and meetings during the months leading up to the
2020 Ford/Unifor contract talks in September was essentially a game of
Jenga: It all could have come crashing down if even one incorrect block
was removed.
Utterly game-changing. Utterly fascinating.
That's what we've come to expect from the Canadian auto industry.
Behind every story there's a story. And the next five years are likely to be
more exciting than the last five. Of that there is little question. - ANC

EST. 1925

PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
KEITH E. CRAIN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
KC CRAIN, GROUP PUBLISHER
JASON STEIN, PUBLISHER

DAVE VERSICAL, CHIEF OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS GROUP

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

NEWS DEPARTMENT

JEFF MELNYCHUK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, 506.854.5024, JMelnychuk@autonews.com
GRACE MACALUSO, MANAGING EDITOR, 226.787.0441, gmacaluso@crain.com

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Email: customerservicecanada@autonews.com

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Karen Rentschler, 313.446.6031
Email: Krentschler@crain.com

OF ALL THE LESSONS CANADA'S AUTO RETAILERS
In Montreal, Porsche Prestige rewrote the cuslearned from COVID-19, the sharpest insight was
tomer service book when physical distancing rules
articulated by Kim Day, COO of Steele Auto Group
in the first round of shutdowns in Quebec caused
in Nova Scotia.
a customer to have misgivings about a $160,000
" You need to be adaptable,
car that had been on order for
you need to be flexible and you
two years. Sales Manager Olivier
need to be nimble. "
Moutran offered the client the
MANAGING EDITOR
Day sums up a key theme
option of rescinding the sale with
GRACE
that runs through our package of
no penalty.
stories (beginning on Page 18) on
In the end, the customer
MACALUSO
best practices employed by dealdecided to proceed with the purers fighting to keep their business
chase, which was delivered to his
afloat during an unprecedented
Sherbrooke home by dealership
COMMENT
crisis.
staff who made the 340-kilomeThere was, as Day noted, " no
tre round trip.
playbook " to survive the pandemic. Yet dealers put
Complimentary pickup and delivery of new and
on their innovative thinking caps and found ways
service vehicles, five-day return
to help not only their businesses and employees
policies, online sales transactions
but also their communities weather the storm.
and installation of outdoor seating
At the start of the pandemic, when consumers
to complete deals became a standard at many dealerships.
raided store shelves, Mercedes-Benz Brampton
As restrictions eased, pent-up
made sure its 130 employees at the Ontario dealership had basic supplies, including toilet paper,
demand from retail customers
hand sanitizer and canned food. In March, dealerfueled a sales rebound, with dealships were on the essenerships such as South Trail
Day: " You
tial-businesses
list,
and
Hyundai in Calgary posting record need to be
Dealers put on
management didn't want
months.
adaptable,
their thinking
employees to endure the
" I've always been a believer
you need to
that you can't worry about the
caps and found added stress of waging
be flexible
at the grocery store,
rain, you've just got to learn how
and you
ways to weather battle
said Human Resources
to dance in it, " General Manager
need to be
the storm.
nimble. "
Director Nicole Romero.
Dan Katz said of his store's
FILE PHOTO
At nearby Bramgate
response to the crisis.
Automotive, $50 for every vehicle sold was donatThe pandemic is in its second
ed to the foundations of two hospitals. " It's a twowave, with restrictions tightening in certain jurisdicway street, " said Roberto Fazio, vice-president of
tions. But this time, said Steele Auto's Day, dealfinance and administration. " We need to help
ers have the benefit of experience.
them, and they need to help us for us to continue
" We do have a playbook moving forward, so
to be important members of the community. "
we'll be able to pivot quickly. " - ANC

Take a bow, Jerry Dias
AS A BASEBALL AND
basketball coach, there's something I say to my young son
almost weekly: " I'll always tell
you what went wrong and what
you need to work on, but I'll
also always tell you when you
did something well. I'll always
be honest with you. "
It's a pretty simple philosophy. It's one all journalists
should live
by, too.
Nearly $5
So, it's no
billion for
secret I've
six plants in taken Unifor
Canada is a President
Jerry Dias to
huge win for task in this
in the
the industry space
past. I've critand Unifor. icized his
union's political leanings and activity. And
I've called on him and his bargaining committee to be more
transparent when it comes to
revealing contract details before
a ratification vote.
So, it's only fair I give the
fiery union leader a big ol' pat
on the back for a job well done
during the 2020 contract talks
with the Detroit Three.
I'm 44 years old. I grew up
in Windsor-Essex, Ont. I've been
a reporter for 25 years - nearly
five of them devoted to the auto
industry. So, I've seen plenty of
contract talks. And yet I have

has decided to build its most
popular pickups in Oshawa,
Ont. That might be the biggest
win of them all. An idled plant
GREG
will build desireable vehicles for
LAYSON
the biggest segment of the market.
" If you're going to be in one
line of product, the best-case
COMMENT
scenario is to be in pickups, "
Flavio Volpe, the head of the
Automotive Parts
never witnessed this kind of
Manufacturers' Association, told
windfall for the industry.
me the day the deal was
Add it all up, and Dias and
announced.
his committees netted nearly
GM said it will spend
$5 billion worth of investment that the Detroit
up to $1.3 billion retooling an assembly line
Three will spend at six
that hasn't even been
factories, creating and
idle for a year yet.
maintaining thousands of
Oshawa Assembly will
jobs and ushering in a
get a new body shop,
new age of vehicle manufacturing.
new assembly line and
Two of the automakupgraded paint shop,
Jerry Dias
bargained
ers - Ford and Fiat
making it a " complete
for-and
Chrysler - have comassembly operation
mitted to electric-vehicle got- almost once again, " Dias said.
$5 billion of
assembly. Whether
The agreement solideither of them builds the investments ifies GM's footprint " for
number of vehicles they in six plants, years and years to
preserving
come, " he added.
have promised remains
thousands
" We never gave up
to be seen. Markets
of Unifor
hope and, frankly, neichange, consumer
jobs in the
ther did General
demand wanes, autoprocess. "
Motors, " Dias said of
makers alter their plans. F I L E P H O T O
GM Oshawa. " We have
But I'd rather try and fail
a lot of reasons to celebrate
than do nothing at all and try to
today. "
play catch-up against the
Yes, you do. By all means,
United States or Mexico later.
do so. You deserve it. - ANC
Meanwhile, General Motors
DIGITAL AND
MOBILE EDITOR

Automotive News Canada - November 2020

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