Ford Seeks Aid for Oakville

The Ontario government's plans to make “strategic investments” to help attract automotive assembly to the Canadian province bodes well for Ford Motor Co.'s desire to make its Oakville operations a flexible campus.

Comments by Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade Joseph Cordiano in mid February that the province will compete against U.S. states for plants with incentives coincides with negotiations in Dearborn concerning the fate of Oakville.

Ford has said it would like to take the Oakville assembly plant (minivans) and the adjacent Ontario Truck Plant (to be shuttered when F-150 assembly ceases in July) and create a $1 billion flexible campus. The proposed operation would produce one architecture (likely minivans) with multiple derivatives, with a start up in 2007.

Ford wants government assistance in the C$200 million-C$300 million ($139 million-$208 million) range.

Cordiano says any government assistance will not be in the form of straight subsidies but would involve research and training dollars. A plan on how to proceed is expected “in the non-too-distant future.”

Ford says much has been accomplished inhouse in negotiations on the fate of the Oakville site since January and now is “in the initial stages of projects to be approved later this year.”