One local auto analyst says the recently proposed $1-billion investment will sustain the region's auto industry, but likely won't be enough to attract new investment.
Conservative Stephen Harper announced last week he would extend the Auto Innovation Fund over the next decade.
Tony Faria with the auto research office at the University of Windsor says the province "badly" needs a new assembly plant.
"The type of incentives that we are looking at from competitive jurisdictions in the southern U.S. and in Mexico are multiple times the size of this program," he says.
The State of Tennessee provided nearly $600-million to secure a $1-billion Volkswagen plant investment. Faria says the Auto Innovation Fund isn't set up to do that because $600-million would be six years of Harper's proposed program.
"We really would need the $1-billion in a lump sum available immediately to any company that's possibly considering an assembly plant investment in Ontario," Faria says.
Unifor also says $100-million each year over 10 years "is not very much."
