Ontario to get Honda engine assembly plant

Honda Canada is building a new powertrain assembly facility in Ontario, which will create 340 jobs and be operational by 2008, the auto-maker announced on May 17.
The new facility will manufacture fuel-efficient four-litre engines for Honda’s popular Civic model, and will give the automotive OEM the ability to adapt to different and more technologically advanced models in the future, Honda said.
Ontario’s provincial government will foot ten per cent of the $154 million cost of building the new engine plant, which will be an expansion of the firm’s existing truck assembly facility in Alliston, Ont.
Honda built the Alliston truck assembly facility in 1996, 10 years after it opened a vehicle assembly plan in the same town. Last year the two assembly plants produced a total of 385,000 vehicles.
“Honda’s project is the latest in an unprecedented line of new automotive investments worth more than $7 billion for our province that have brought thousands of jobs that families can rely on for years to come,” Joe Cordiano, Ontario’s minister of economic development and trade, said.
This comes on the heels of May 12’s announcement of a deal with Tier One supplier, Linamar to establish a technology and training centre in Guelph, Ont. It is expected to create about 3,000 direct jobs.
Other recent developments include a deal with Toyota parts supplier, Toyetetsu Canada, to open its first Canadian facility in Simcoe, Ont., creating 250 direct jobs, as well as a $100 million investment by Ford Canada in its Oakville, Ont. plan to create a flexible manufacturing centre.
The government has also announced investments by General Motors, Toyota, DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc. and Nemak.