Automotive News Canada - December 2020 - v2 - 1

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DECEMBER 2020 | VOL. 4, NO. 12 | AUTOMOTIVENEWS.CA FOR BREAKING NEWS AND DIGITAL EDITION

Lockdown on sales expected to drift well into the new year
By GREG LAYSON

D I G I TA L A N D M O B I L E E D I T O R

CANADIAN NEW-VEHICLE SALES
are taking a hit from a second, more
intense wave of COVID-19 and the
social and economic restrictions
being adopted in some parts of the
country to combat the surge.
Analysts and dealers are forecasting a winter fallout extending

MEET
OUR

2020
ALL

STARS
P20-23

Falling consumer
confidence on top of
new stay-at-home orders
into the first quarter of 2021 as lockdowns and waning consumer confidence keep people at home and out
of showrooms.
On Dec. 7, Alberta Premier Jason
Kenney imposed restrictions to curb

the spread of the deadly virus. One
of those requires dealers to limit
showroom and service capacity to
just 15 per cent. The new rules will
be in place until at least Jan. 3.
But the capacity cap is not even
the biggest concern for Gerald
Wood, president of the Motor
Dealers' Association of Alberta.
" The bigger challenge is the
impact that these overall measures
will have on consumer confidence

Wood:
Lockdowns
impact
consumer
confidence.

and how people manage workfrom-home mandates and a
message of maintaining limited contact, " Wood said.
" Our members have done
an exceptional job at reacting to a touchless-transaction world, but if people stay
home, it will be tougher to
continue to drive business. "

SEE THE FUTURE PAGE 29

FILE PHOTO

OSHAWA ASSEMBLY RETOOL

Up to 10,000 supply-chain jobs
Building Silverado and
Sierra pickups will involve
a massive expansion of the
Canadian supplier base
By DANA FLAVELLE

TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

GENERAL MOTORS' SURPRISE
decision to restart vehicle production
at its shuttered Oshawa Assembly plant
will pump more than $3 billion worth
of business into Ontario's parts sector a
year and create thousands of jobs within
it, industry stakeholders say.
The move secures
a long-term future
for companies

such as AGS Automotive
Systems, which operates a
manufacturing plant near
the GM factory, said Lisa
Tucker Boulton, general
counsel at the J2 Group,
Boulton:
the Toronto-based owner
Oshawa
of AGS and Tiercon Corp.
reopening
" We're just so excitwill make,
ed. This breathes new life
AGS more
into our Oshawa facility,
viable.
whose future was uncerFILE PHOTO
tain. "
As a GM supplier, AGS
expects to win the additional Canadian
business, she said. The company, for-

THE
GENDER
GAP IS
WIDENING

SEE 1,400-1,700 PAGE 26

Why GM
flipped
the switch

The plant wasn't
dead, it was in
hibernation awaiting
a new-product
mandate brought
about by the effects
of COVID-19
By JOHN IRWIN

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA

FUTURE VEHICLE
production at General Motors'
Oshawa, Ont., assembly plant
was never taken off the table,
even after the plant closed in
2019, but the pandemic provided the ultimate impetus,
say the presidents of General
Motors Canada and labour
union Unifor.
GM's $1-billion plan to
resume vehicle production in
Oshawa in 2022 proves it, they
say.
" We never gave up on
Oshawa, " GM Canada
President Scott Bell said in
Automotive News Canada's

LEADING WOMEN
PANELS DISCUSS
THE REGRESSION

P12-14

SEE GM OSHAWA PAGE 26

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY:
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PROGRAM
January 14 * 1:00-5:00 PM EST

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Automotive News Canada - December 2020 - v2

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