THUNDER BAY -- A deal to refurbish 94 bi-level GO Transit rail coaches will provide work for 200 workers over two to three years at Thunder Bay's Alstom manufacturing plant.
Ontario's Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney announced the contract Tuesday alongside executives from Alstom and Metrolinx, the crown corporation that oversees transit in the GTA and Hamilton, including GO Transit.
She said the deal to refurbish the coaches in the same factory where they were originally built between 2003 and 2008 was both "good for transit and good for Thunder Bay workers.”
The contract is worth $171 million, with delivery of the refurbished coaches to Go Transit beginning in 2023 and concluding in 2024.
Along with a deal inked in May to build 60 new TTC streetcars, that will guarantee around 400 jobs at the plan over the next two years, said Alstom Americas president Michael Keroullé.
That secures a “critical mass” of workers and activity at the plant, bolstering its efforts to secure larger contracts, he said.
Unifor Local 1075 president Dominic Pasqualino said the deal offered a "bridge" to a more sustainable future, allowing the plant to retain skilled workers, many of whom have been laid off and some of whom would lose their seniority within the next year.
“A lot of them probably are working somewhere else already,” he said. “Hopefully the job here at Alstom will be a better job, and they’ll be willing to quit the job they’re at.”
Pasqualino, who has been laid off twice for about a year each time himself, said the facility needs to get out of that cycle.
"When the numbers go down, there are opportunities for some of our key workers to work at other places, whether it’s in a mine or in other communities," he said. "The skill set that’s required to build trains is quite complicated. Once we have them trained, I’d like them to stay and finish their careers here. That’s what I’m hoping for, is to build some stability.”
Building that stability will hinge on the plant's ability to lock down larger orders. Pasqualino is eyeing an order for TTC subway cars he expects to be decided in the coming year, which he said could be for up to 400 units.
He was confident Alstom's Thunder Bay plant will be a front-runner for the contract, but said the decision can't come soon enough.
“Unfortunately, it takes a long time to set up for subway cars – you have to purchase all the parts, you have to get the jigs in place," he said. "So even if it was signed as early as today, it’s not going to start for a year or two after that. So really, a two-year bridge is just barely getting you to the other side of the river."
“We really need to be working with the politicians now, with Alstom, and the [transit] agencies and try to get something signed as soon as possible.”
Pasqualino said he's largely looking to Ontario transit services for meaningful orders, with the Buy America plan and domestic production incentives in Quebec drying up other possibilities.
Both the Ontario NDP and Liberals have called for the provincial government to put similar policies in place. In 2019, the Ford government defeated a bill from Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Michael Gravelle that would have required at least 60 per cent Canadian content for public mass transit orders in Ontario.
Taking questions from reporters Tuesday, Mulroney didn't directly address why her government wouldn't support such a policy, but said it was still working hard to keep contracts in the province.
"I think we've shown a commitment to keeping jobs in Ontario - the premier was here [at the Alstom plant] twice," she said. "Metrolinx is a big customer of Alstom's, and we're going to continue to have needs... We have a lot of work that will be coming, and we look forward to getting as much made in Ontario as possible."
That doesn't go far enough, Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Judith Monteith Farrell said in a statement Tuesday.
“As I’ve said many times, the Ford government needs to take action on a Made-in-Ontario strategy that will get the plant running back at full capacity,” she said. "The Ford government could have the plant running at full capacity but it needs to make a long-term commitment to Alstom Thunder Bay for more vehicles to meet the demand of the province’s transit projects in southern Ontario.”
The Alstom plant, formerly owned by Bombardier, currently employs about 500 people, less than half of its peak workforce.
Metrolinx CEO Phil Versder hinted Tuesday the plant could see more GO refurbishment work in the future. Metrolinx has a ten-year rolling refurbishment plan that includes many of its 1,000 bi-level cars.
The plant secured the 94-coach deal announced Tuesday through an internal "market comparison" rather than a competitive bidding process.
“What we did to decide whether we were going to put the work in Thunder Bay or not, was we did a market comparison," Versder said. "We’re very confident that this is a market competitive price.”
