Toyota OK’s $800-million flexible assembly plant

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc has approved construction of a new $800-million flexible assembly automotive plant in Woodstock ON, the first auto plant to be built on a greenfield site in Canada in nearly 20 years. The plant will employ 1,300 workers and increase Toyota’s Canadian assembly capacity from 270,000 units to 420,000 units. The plant will assemble RAV4 sports utility vehicles. The federal government is contributing $55 million to the project to support pre-production and environmental technologies in the plant and paint shop. The Ontario government is investing $70 million for training and infrastructure support. In addition to the Woodstock plant, Toyota also announced a $39-million expansion of its aluminum wheel plant at Delta BC, owned by Toyota subsidiary Canadian Autoparts Toyota Inc, the sixth expansion since the facility opened in 1985. The Toyota investment is the third major automotive project for Ontario in the last nine months, an impressive track record largely attributed to the creation of the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council. The other projects are by Ford (R$, November 9/04) and General Motors (R$, March 9/05)....