May 31, 2011

 

Rob Ferguson

 

Premier Dalton McGuinty used Ontario’s bailout loans to Chrysler to slam the rival Progressive Conservatives in a pitch for votes Tuesday.

 

“The other guys said we shouldn’t do this, they called it corporate welfare,” he said after congratulating Chrysler for paying back $567 million for the loan and interest six years early.

 

McGuinty was on a campaign-style tour of the Chrysler auto assembly plant in Brampton, meeting with Chrysler Group chief executive Sergio Marchionne.

 

With the Oct. 6 election approaching, the premier also hit the Conservatives for their election platform released over the weekend, saying it has “no plan” to create jobs.

 

“It’s worse than a no jobs plan — it would kill jobs,” he said in reference to PC Leader Tim Hudak’s vow to kill the Samsung clean energy deal.

 

Marchionne said he wanted to stay out of the political fray but praised Ontario as well as the federal Conservative government and the U.S. for their “lifeline” loans, saying they helped preserve 9,000 Chrysler jobs in Canada.

 

“The premier believed in us even though the political risk was high,” he said. “We will always be grateful ...we have no intention of wasting the rare second chance that has been given to us.”

 

On Monday, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tempered the good news by saying taxpayers still won’t recoup their entire investment.

 

He stressed that other aid to the automaker, including the value of an equity stake, won’t make up for the original investment package.

 

“Let’s be clear that at the end of the day, there’s not going to be a full recovery of the taxpayers’ investments that were made back in 2008 and 2009 in the sense of tax recovery,” Flaherty told workers and reporters at Chrysler’s casting plant in suburban Etobicoke.

 

Conservative MPP and industry critic Peter Shurman said his party does not believe in governments picking “winners and losers,” a function that should be left to consumers in the marketplace.