THUNDER BAY — Workers at the former Bombardier Transportation plant in Thunder Bay received a chance Monday to meet the company's new leadership at Alstom.
The French-based company officially took ownership of Bombardier's rail division properties around the world on Friday.
Today, employees were invited to a livestreamed event where CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge welcomed them to the Alstom family.
Dominic Pasqualino, president of Unifor local 1075 at the Thunder Bay plant, said there was a very brief reference to the local facility but no revelations about the new owner's immediate plans for it.
"They did mention Thunder Bay specifically in there, so he knows about us. They were asking everybody where they were from at the beginning, and he mentioned each plant in Canada," Pasqualino said.
He said the main message was that "we are no longer Bombardier employees, we are Alstom employees, and we are all part of a great team."
In a recent interview with the Globe and Mail, Poupart-Lafarge said Alstom does not intend to close any factories in Ontario or Quebec, but that it will take three or four years to "stabilize" the Bombardier transportation division.
Noting that global sales of rail equipment is still growing, he said "These factories will need to be filled with commercial success, that's for sure...but they should not be afraid...the idea is not to lose factories."
In a published message to employees, Poupart-Lafarge also said transportation is at the heart of a paradigm shift driven by urbanisation, economic development and climate change, and that "to make it happen, a significant upgrade of rail transportation" is needed.
Pasqualino expressed concern, however, that an existing order from the Toronto Transit Commission for 13 more light rail vehicles may go to the Bombardier plant in Kingston rather than to Thunder Bay.
The order was announced in July but Bombardier never confirmed where the work would be done.
"I don't know where those are going to be built. I think they might well end up being built in Kingston. It's a very important issue that needs to be dealt with immediately," Pasqualino said.
Toronto has actually identified a need for 60 LRVs, but funding is not in place yet for a full order.
Pasqualino said "If you're looking at 13 cars, that has a very slow place, so [Kingston] certainly has the capability of doing that," but if the larger order came through, it would be handled more efficiently at Thunder Bay.
"I really need the federal and provincial government to stand up and give us that full contract, and immediately after that get us that subway car contract, because we're looking at over 400 cars, and that's the one that will bring the numbers back to the plant that will keep it sustainable for a long period of time."
Noting that Bombardier has "a negative reputation" in some circles, Pasqualino speculated the change in ownership might spur the governments to expedite funding for the TTC equipment.
For now, however, he remains frustrated with the two senior governments over the absence of confirmed funding for new orders from the TTC.
"It's so frustrating. The federal government says they need the goahead from the province. The province says they need the goahead from the federal government," he said, adding "I don't know why we've been basically ignored at this point."
Thunder Bay-River MP Marcus Powlowski acknowledged that each government is pointing a finger at the other, but said the situation is complicated because of the way transit-related expenses are divided between the City of Toronto and the province.
"I too am frustrated with the fact this has yet to get done, as is, I know, our government," Powlowski said in a recent interview.
He said there's a chance the logjam will be broken with an anticipated federal announcement of a new, permanent multi-billion dollar mass transit infrastructure fund.
In the meantime, Powlowski said, "We have a whole bunch of politicians all being politicians, being a little cagey about who's doing what and who's not funding what."
Dougall Media also requested an interview with Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Patty Hajdu.
In response, her office issued a brief statement saying Premier Doug Ford "has been very slow" to take advantage of the Canada Infrastructure Program which makes money available for the purchase of streetcars by the TTC.
