WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Canada has been working daily with American officials to coordinate on an aid plan for struggling U.S. automakers and is committed to providing the companies with a share of help, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday.
“We’ve said whatever the United States government is ultimately going to do, we’re prepared to do our 20 percent share because we have 20 percent of the industry,” Harper told Reuters in an interview.
“And we’ve been working daily with the American administration to ensure we’re on the same page.”
“I’m certainly very confident that the Obama administration is going to require the automobile manufacturers and their stakeholders to make the difficult decisions necessary so that any government support will be successful and will create a viable industry,” Harper said.
“I think the last thing the president wants is, where we do a government bailout that doesn’t work and we’ll have to do it over again in a year or a year and a half.” The Canadian and provincial Ontario governments scheduled a news conference for noon EDT (1600 GMT) today to make statements on the restructuring efforts in the auto industry.
