WASHINGTON -- As U.S. legislators ordered the chief executives of North America's biggest automakers back to Detroit to come up with a business plan to justify a US$25 billion bailout, Canada's industry minister arrived in town hoping for more information on a rescue package that was possibly doomed before his plane landed.
Industry Minister Tony Clement met Thursday with U.S. officials representing powerful Democrats as part of a fact-finding mission on the imperilled auto industry.
Clement and Michael Bryant, Ontario's economic development minister, were relegated to talking to policy officials for Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and other prominent Democrats as the lawmakers spent the day dealing with all manner of economic crises, including a plummeting stock market and approving new legislation to keep unemployment cheques flowing through December.
"We came here to Washington to get an accurate picture of the situation and to see what automakers and our American counterparts are proposing for the industry," Clement told a news conference on the roof of the Canadian embassy, with the U.S. Capitol building as a backdrop, on a cold and blustery afternoon.
The global financial crisis has "accelerated their need for a new business model," said Clement.
"The companies and the unions need to come up with a plan for the industry's long-term success ... no one wants to be back to where we are today one year from now."
A vote on the automakers bailout was delayed indefinitely on Thursday.
As Congress prepared to leave town, perhaps for the rest of the year, Democratic leaders said they could return to Washington in mid-December to vote on rescue loans if the industry first comes up with a plan to transform and modernize their businesses.
Hanging in the balance are hundreds of thousands of jobs in both the U.S. and Canada should the North American auto industry collapse in the weeks to come.
In the United States, 355,000 American workers are directly employed by the auto industry and an additional 4.5 million work in related industries. That doesn't count the one million retirees, spouses and dependents who rely on the companies for retirement and health-care benefits.
Ontario, the heartland of the Canada's auto industry, would be the hardest-hit province if one of the Big Three automakers filed for bankruptcy -- something that's considered a genuine threat now that the bailout is on hold.
It would be a devastating blow to the province, which is already facing a $500-million deficit and will become a have-not province next year when it begins to collect equalization payments from Ottawa.
Bryant said he and Clement were "warmly welcomed" by senior Democratic policy officials on Thursday as the pair reminded them Canada and the U.S. were "all in this together."
The Canadian politicians said they were planning to talk to Frank directly by telephone on Friday, and both disputed suggestions that their visit was pointless since they failed to meet with any powerful Democrats face to face and events of the day overshadowed their meetings.
"I came away thinking these were high-level meetings, these were serious people ... especially on a day like today, to get the kinds of meetings that we did get," Clement said.
The chief executives for the big auto companies -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- travelled to Washington earlier this week to plead for the $25 billion immediately, saying they need it to stay in business until spring.
On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, the trio were pilloried for flying to Washington separately in private jets and badgered about whether they'd be willing to cut their multi-million-dollar salaries. They were told Thursday to come up with a plan to modernize their businesses before expecting any government money.
Until Democratic leaders opted to delay the vote, the bailout appeared headed for defeat in Congress. Democrats wanted the $25 billion to come out of the $700-billion Wall Street bailout, but Republicans balked at the idea.
Clement and Bryant have been in the United States for two days talking to auto executives, including in Detroit on Wednesday.
"It gave us another level, another layer of information," Clement said.
"Is it enough to make a decision involving taxpayers' money? I would say no. We have to drill down more ... it was very important to see the whites of their eyes, to have those discussions, to get the sense of what they see their future being not just in North America but in Canada specifically."
Neither Clement nor Bryant provided details about what they would do should one of the Big Three declare bankruptcy.
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and I'm going to say that I don't think anything terrible's going to happen between now and Dec. 8 when Congress returns," Clement said.
"All of the automakers have a fixed date that they are working towards here in the United States ... so in that sense I think we made the right decision to continue to gather the information."
