With no signs of an end to the Canada-U.S. trade war, should Ottawa be considering warmer relations with Beijing?Subscribe to Your Morning for the latest: ht...

Canada relies on foreign auto executives for its auto industry. It already provides huge taxpayer subsidies per job. There is certainly a possible future where all of those foreign loyal companies side with US to destroy Canadian auto production/investment.

  1. China could help save Canadian auto industry by providing motors and batteries for Canadian made EVs. Chinese investment to make goods from Canadian resources in Canada is a path for scale that includes global export potential of autos and other industrial goods to whole globe including China.

  2. If it doesn’t make economic sense to make our own tube socks, it doesn’t make sense to make overly expensive cars, either. There is a stronger national security argument for apparel, that needs yearly replacements, than solar, batteries, and autos that last 20+ years. More so, when they are not dependent on continuous international fuel supply chains/geopolitics.

Pressure on foreign executives to support Canadian production includes access to Canadian market. The stability of status quo will appeal to most people. But the threat/plan B of cooperation with China is both a path to manufacturing and resource FDI paid by China instead of taxpayers, and better quality of life through better value goods.

  • Dholi@lemmy.caEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    No thanks. I don’t trust them after what they did to Nortel. It’s much better for Canada to build a high-speed train line and more LRTs all across Canada because:

    • Building transit allows us to train our workers for these types of projects. Workers gain new skills which can be used for more transit projects.
    • Relying on auto manufacturing results in federal and provincial governments dumping billions of investment incentives into these companies for production runs that are essentially limited time only. Once the production run is up after 5 or so years, they ask the government for more money again or they threaten to move production.
    • Makes our communities walk-able, safer, and makes travelling more convenient.
    • Our roads in major cities are already at or above capacity and we can’t keep jamming our roads with more and more cars.
    • Hazematman@lemmy.ca
      1·
      10 hours ago

      Totally agree we should invest more in trains and other forms of transit. Especially in areas where it would relieve a lot of car traffic like the Toronto to Montreal route. I dream off a day where I could ditch my car and be easily able to travel between those cities without breaking the bank, or being stuck with freight rail traffic. Honestly I think I would settle for VIA having more priority on the rails. The travel time isn’t that bad when compared to driving. The costs and the uncontrolled delays are really killer.

      With that being said, I think Canada would be better off aligning their tariffs on China with the EU. I don’t think we need to cut of China completely but we would be better off aligning with the EU and keeping our options open to have a diverse set of trading partners instead of relying on one big partner like we do now with the US.