{"id":1334,"date":"2009-06-22T23:52:53","date_gmt":"2009-06-23T04:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=1334"},"modified":"2010-08-06T09:41:51","modified_gmt":"2010-08-06T14:41:51","slug":"gm-canada-bailout-its-not-easy-being-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2009\/06\/22\/gm-canada-bailout-its-not-easy-being-green\/","title":{"rendered":"GM Canada Bailout & It’s Not Easy Being Green"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""A<\/a>
"A different kind of company. A different kind of car"? ~Apologies to Saturn tagline of the 1990s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notes from North of 49\u00baN<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not often I agree with Tom Friedman<\/a><\/strong>, but last fall when I was preoccupied with the US general election, teaching, and associate directing a center, he was advocating not just a bailout, but a green buildup<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0He quoted Van Jones<\/a><\/strong>, author of The Green Collar Economy<\/a><\/strong>::<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to stop borrowing and start building. America\u2019s No. 1 resource is not oil or mortgages. Our No. 1 resource is our people. Let\u2019s put people back to work \u2014 retrofitting and repowering America. … You can\u2019t base a national economy on credit cards. But you can base it on solar panels, wind turbines, smart biofuels and a massive program to weatherize every building and home in America.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Friedman was in favour of attaching green strings to bailouts<\/a>, <\/strong>an idea I think warranted further study, at the very least. \u00a0Fast forward 9 months and focus on the province of Ontario, where at the federal level, the Conservatives {Stephen Harper}, and at the provincial level, the Liberals {Dalton McGuinty}, jumped on the US bailout bandwagon to a tune of $9.5B or $10.9B Canadian. \u00a0This is in addition to the Obama administration’s $49.8B. \u00a0The combined US and Canadian bailouts are worth 130 times the present value of GM. \u00a0Here’s what both Harper and McGuinty had to say about this::<\/p>\n

“We had to save it all or have zero forever,”<\/p>\n

–Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The alternative would have been a devastating blow to Ontario families and communities.”<\/p>\n

–Dalton McGuinty, Ontario Premiere<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The troubles in the industry are not new news and CBC has a chronology of layoffs<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0I’ve alluded to this bailout before and the scant jobs it will save<\/a><\/strong>, but here are the specifics in terms of the Canadian GM assembly line::<\/p>\n

“At present GM Canada has 12,000 hourly and salaried employees, but that number is expected to shrink to about 5,500 over the next couple of years. About 1,100 of the new total is expected to be salaried jobs, which are unrelated to assembly operations. That means Ottawa and the Ontario government are together spending an unprecedented $2.1 million for each assembly job at GM Canada they hope to save.”–Time, 1 June 2009<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s likely that GM suppliers will also be affected, a $7.2B industry employing 45,000 workers, but it is unlikely that all these jobs are at risk. \u00a0While Canada accounts for about 19.4% of North American production, Canadian cost advantages have been eroded<\/a><\/strong> by a stronger Canadian dollar, a weakened US union in the UAW, and strong and strategic bargaining by the Canadian Auto Workers union.<\/p>\n

While the situation looks gloomy for manufacturing in Ontario, quite a few are banking on green jobs. \u00a0So much so that St. Clair College has a 2-year green jobs programme <\/a><\/strong>and the province has a commitment to clean energy. \u00a0Currently, the province gets 25% of its electricity from coal, but wants to shut down all of its coal plants by 2014<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0The province is hoping to convert some of the plants to carbon-neutral biomass, although the yields will be lower. \u00a0The slack will need to be picked up by alternatives, with greener options being wind and solar. \u00a0Ontario’s Climate Change Action Plan <\/a><\/strong>calls for greenhouse gas emission reduction to 6% under 1990 levels<\/a> <\/strong>and the new Green Energy Act<\/a> is meant to protect the environment, regulate, and spur investment in green technologies. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Policy & Innovation:: The California Example<\/strong><\/p>\n

The PPIC has a report<\/a><\/strong> on the effects of California’s Zero-Emissions Vehicle {ZEV} mandate, particularly in the 1990s and early 2000s. \u00a0During this time, the California government, through the Air Resources Board {CARB} initially set in 1990 requirements that by 1998 that 2% and by 2003 that 10% vehicles sold in California would be ZEV. \u00a0Suffice it to say, concessions were made over time, but the original mandate set the wheels in motion for innovation. \u00a0The effects of the program were::<\/p>\n