Toyota signals commitment to Ontario auto workers as new generation RAV4 rolls out
CBC
The largest automotive employer in southwestern Ontario doubled down on its commitment to its Canadian workforce on Friday, despite uncertainty across other parts of the auto industry.
Toyota Canada reaffirmed that commitment at a factory tour of its Woodstock, Ont. plant where the production of the sixth generation of RAV4 SUVs is underway.
“This is a significant demonstration of Toyota’s confidence in our people, our plants, and our manufacturing ecosystem,“ Tim Hollander, the president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC), said.
"It also reflects our long-term commitment to Canada and the communities where we operate."
The company has an almost 40 year history in Canada with plants in Woodstock and Cambridge employing roughly 8,500 people. The company says its southwestern Ontario operation produces the most vehicles on the continent.
The investment has continued, despite 2025 being a devastating year elsewhere in Ontario’s auto industry. Hundreds of jobs were lost following the closure of General Motors’s CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, and 3,000 others have been laid off at Stellantis' Brampton plant where a vehicle hasn't been produced in two years.
In June, Toyota reconfigured the Woodstock and Cambridge plants so that battery packs for the new RAV4s could be built in-house, instead of in Japan.
The vehicle, exclusively available as an electric hybrid, is completely redesigned from the ground-up, according to Hollander, who said Toyota invested $1.1 billion to produce it in Canada.
According to company officials, Toyota has invested a total of more than $12 billion in its Canadian operations, and there are no plans to cut back.
But for auto workers looking for jobs, the company said it is not expanding.
Liberal MP Kareem Bardeesy, who serves as parliamentary secretary to Industry Minister Melanie Joly, was in attendance Friday. Minister Joly has said she is working on a plan for the CAMI plant and is in support of autoworkers.
Bardeesy said that while Canada must adapt to new realities, it must also do what it can to secure existing partnerships, an echo from the Prime Minister's speech at Davos earlier in the week.
“This plant and the ecosystem and consumers and team members who are part of that, integrated between Canada, the United States, Japan and elsewhere, is an example of that integration,” Bardeesy said.
Upcoming CUSMA tade talks remain a concern, said Scott MacKenzie, Toyota Canada’s director of corporate and external affairs.
A candlelight vigil was held Friday evening in Montreal for Chong Woo Kim, the owner of a corner store who was murdered the day before while at work.
While calls are growing to ban paid plasma donations in light of donor deaths, not everyone agrees stopping it is the best option.
CBC's road trip series Land of Living Stories explores inspiring stories of community spirit from across Saskatchewan. In our latest visit, CBC-Radio Canada hit the road to La Ronge. This is the third of a multi-part series from that community.
Aleesha Baxter woke up in her three-year-old daughter's bedroom early Monday morning to the sound of loud bangs.
A new interactive safety map aims to help people navigate dating apps safely.
Alberta’s two largest river basins have become one, part of a suite of major updates to the province’s water rules that came into force this week.
A set of agreements signed last month between the federal government and the Musqueam Indian Band has sparked debate, confusion and political reaction across British Columbia.
The Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory (CSSL) has been operating for a year now. It's a nationwide project based at Western University, where data from scientists and engineers across the country are used to study extreme weather and help communities better prepare for future events.
Abby Chapman had to calm herself before she could send an email to her supervisor. Her hands were shaking too much to type.
Chief Jamie Moses of Pehdzeh Ki First Nation enthusiastically welcomed news on Thursday that Ottawa is supporting the Mackenzie Valley Highway. And he spoke of the potential it has to transform his community in Wrigley moving forward.
Listen, we don't control the internet. Nor do we have any say in how people exercise their free will.
Ontario wants to exempt the premier, cabinet ministers and parliamentary assistants from being subject to the province’s freedom-of-information laws, a move that’s sparked outrage from experts, opposition parties, and the province’s privacy commissioner.
The federal government is currently weighing whether to renew funding meant to address a massive backlog of airline passenger complaints — funding that if not extended could result in Canadians having to wait longer to have their cases heard.