The town of Ingersoll is still in shock and now trying to react after General Motors (GM) announced it would lay off roughly 500 workers at the CAMI auto plant early this week. Mayor Brian Petrie said that despite open and active communication with GM, they did not know in advance of the public.
“No, unfortunately I wasn’t aware of it happening. We do have regular communications with GM, but unfortunately you never know when these decisions are going to be made. Certainly, they want to make sure they’re telling their employees first. So certainly a surprise and certainly not a good one,” said Petrie.
Picture of the BrightDrop EV being manufactured at the CAMI facility. (Source: gm.ca)
GM has stated the BrightDrop EV’s that were being manufactured at the plant were not selling and that was the main driving factor behind the decision of layoffs. It is also hard to ignore the current uncertain economic climate inlcuding the U.S. President Trump’s auto tariffs of 25 per cent that have been in place until he recently suggested they may be removed, that may have also contributed to GM’s decision.
According to Petrie economic anxieties have been openly expressed by busisnesses and citizens of the town.
“Yeah, there was a lot of apprehension already in the community over tariffs. Certainly, the community is reliant on GM, it’s our largest employer, largest taxpayer. And so this just adds to that that feeling of unknowingness and what’s going to happen,” said Petrie
Ingersoll isn’t the only town feeling the added economic pressures, according to Jason Bates, Chair of the London Region Manufacturing Council. Areas all across Ontario are wondering if they may have similar problems.
“The level of concern is still there. I think there’s some resignation that, you know, this (tariff policy) is gonna happen in one form or another or the chaos is going to ensue for the foreseeable future,” said Bates.
Bates has said that manufacturing does not thrive in chaos, and that is exactly what it feels like for most businesses and workers right now.
“A manufacturer may have a lead time that’s eight weeks. So, if they’re building that product and they’re shipping it to an American customer, that American customer doesn’t know, they’re gonna be paying in 8 weeks so that creates hesitancy on the place that order,” said Bates.
This has apparently caused some American buyers to rethink their business strategy.
“I’ve had some manufacturers looking, you know, to partner with American companies, you know, to license to build their product in Canada now,” said Bates.
The Candian side has seen similar movements, Canadian companies are now trying to onshore production and keep it Canadian and local as much as possible to keep costs down according to Bates. This has also been a key point of all federal party leaders while on the campaign the last few weeks for the upcoming federal election. Many are highlighting the streghth and need for Canadian manufacturing.
Mark Carney tours a manufacturing facility in London Ontario during the first days of his election campaign. (Source: Will Bruce/XFM News)
As of now, the layoffs are only set to last until October, when GM and Mayor Petrie hope, the plant can resume to full production. He is still very positive about the future of the facility.
“I know that GM is a big fan of the CAMI facility. They like the workforce. They like what people do there and the quality is great. So, that’s not that’s not the issue. What it’s just, as they say, these they weren’t. This particular vehicle is just not selling enough,” said Petrie.
The people of Ingersoll have bounced back from tough times before and Petrie thinks this will be no different.
“The great thing is we’ve been in industry town for over 100 years. There’s ups, there’s downs in different industries. So its not the first time. But I know from experience that people will come together to support each other. You know this will affect grocery stores right down the local coffee shop and it’s going to be a bigger regional impact as well.”
in the long term, Petrie thinks we’ll see some stability and hopes to make sure that the people of Ingersoll can keep doing what they’ve done there for generations.
