The mayor of Windsor says he can't imagine a day without the Windsor Assembly Plant in the city.
Drew Dilkens says he's doing everything he can to minimize the "crippling" effect of a possible 25% U.S. auto tariff on Canadian-made vehicles.
The Windsor Assembly Plant is the city's largest employer and creates nine jobs in the community for every job in the plant.
Dilkens says it's scary to think about what would happen if massive auto layoffs occur in Windsor because of the tariff.
"I'm hoping it's rhetoric and a mechanism to get all the parties back to the table to resolve NAFTA and come up with a new NAFTA that everybody can live with," says Dilkens.
Dilkens says the tariffs will increase the price of vehicles and will also negatively impact the auto sector in Michigan and other areas. He agrees with Ken Lewenza, the former national president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, that a U.S. tariff on auto imports would be "painful'' for Ontario and Canada's economy. Lewenza warns there would be an economic disaster if the worst case scenario took place and auto companies started leaving Canada.
Dilkens hopes to talk with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the auto tariffs when he comes to Leamington on Canada Day.
"He understands the impact, he knows what's going on here and I want him to know that the auto mayors and this mayor and our community are fully behind what he's trying to do to resolve this," the mayor says.
Dilkens can't imagine the assembly plant ever leaving Windsor and adds it's the one issue that could keep him up at night if the auto tariffs are not resolved.
"They know that they have a friend in me to make sure that we are doing everything we can to support them because their business is so important to our city and its people," Dilkens says.
