Dominic Pasqualino doesn’t think much of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s plan to cut the city’s 2012 municipal budget.
At least not the part that says he wants to curb about $1.1 billion in Toronto Transit Corporation capital spending over the next nine years, a decision that could have a major impact on Thunder Bay’s Bombardier plant.
Pasqualino, the president of Canadian Auto Workers Union local 1075, is concerned Ford’s budget proposal, if passed, could have disastrous effects on workers in Thunder Bay. The plan includes dumping subway and street car purchases and improvements to subway stations.
Bombardier has signed more than $2 billion worth of contracts with the TTC, to provide light-rail and subway cars to the Ontario capital.
“(Ford) says it’s a good move, but I think that it’s going to hamper the expansion of Toronto,” Pasqualino said, noting Toronto city coffers would pay considerable penalties to Bombardier for cancelling signed contracts.
It's not good for Toronto either, he said.
“There’s a lot of construction down there, I was just down there this week and they need these cars to fulfill a need down there. It’s a smart investment about rapid transit. It works better than any other way of getting around in Toronto.”
Ford’s fiscal policy has already made its mark in Thunder Bay, Pasqualino said.
“Already his impacts for being in power for almost a year now have affected the plant,” he said. “They’ve cut down on the Metrolinx street car contract and they’ve slowed down the schedule for 2012, not because we can’t make the cars … but they can’t put them in service.”
Pasqualino said he’s not sure what the budget, should Toronto city council pass it, will do to employee numbers in Thunder Bay. Bombardier employs between 700 and 1,000 people in Thunder Bay, depending on the season.
The company has already built more than 1,400 rail cars in Thunder Bay, a number expected to grow to about 2,030 by the decade’s end.
According to a Bombardier-produced report, the TTC contract, as it stands, calls for 420 new metro cars, 204 low-floor streetcars and 182 light-rail vehicles.
The company also maintains and operates the TTC’s GO Transit commuter train fleet.
Bombardier officials locally are showing some level of concern, Pasqualino said.
“Management’s already talked to the union about the impact of what’s planned for 2012, before this budget came out,” he said. “So this certainly is not good at all for the plant.”
Ford’s $9.35-billion plan also calls for the elimination of 2,300 municipal workers, hikes in transit fees and municipal taxes and using $83 billion from the city’s reserves to lower spending by $52 million over 2011.
