A London area MPP is putting pressure on the provincial government over the future of workers at the CAMI assembly planet in Ingersoll, Ont.
During question period at Queens Park Nov. 17, London North Centre MPP Terence Kernaghan called on the provincial government to get more involved on the future of the plant.
“The federal government got GM to the table, and at the very least, pretended to stand up for workers,” he said.
“It’s been almost a month. From the province, it’s been crickets.”
Kernaghan said in an interview with XFM News there were formerly supports in place to protect jobs for autoworkers.
“There used to be legislation in place called AutoPact where if manufacturers wanted to sell here, they had to build here,” said Kernaghan.
“And that was the kind of thing that protected good jobs. It protected our economy. It made sure that we weren’t just giving multinational corporations access to our market without strings attached,” he said
Premier Doug Ford says his government is at the table with General Motors.
A BrightDrop electric delivery van exiting the CAMI assembly plant Nov. 19, 2025. (Hayden King/XFM News)
“We’re hearing right now from GM. They’re still being a little tight lipped. They’re saying they want to do something. And if they don’t want to do something, then, you know, we’re going to fill that plant one way or another,” said Ford
“We’ve been working with the federal government on building military vehicles there as well. So, there’s a couple options on the table,” Ford said.
CAMI was most recently the site of production for GM’s BrightDrop electric delivery vans.
Earlier in the week, Mike Van Boekel, the plant chairperson for Unifor Local 88, released a statement.
“We are trying to give our members some options going forward. We want to be clear that our main goal is to try and retain the plant and push GM to consider the short term and long-term future of our plant,” he wrote.
“We’re talking about 1200 workers here at CAMI, which is already dramatically lower than the workforce had been,” Kernaghan said.
“There’s so many small businesses that are parts suppliers for the CAMI plant, and there are small businesses that depend on these workers to come in and visit their shops,” he added. “This is really a devastating consequence that the province is basically sticking their head in the sand over.”
