Toyota Plant Helps Lift Ontario Town Economy

Anthony Fontanelle
August 22, 2007

Assembly plants constructed by Japanese automakers in North America have increased in the past years. In order to appease North Americans, automakers like Toyota have invested heavily in the construction and maintenance of assembly plants in the continent. In Canada, Toyota’s assembly plant being constructed in Woodstock, Ontario. The said assembly facility is scheduled to open next year but its positive effect on the town can be felt as early as today.

According to reports, home prices in the town have risen after Toyota announced the construction of an assembly plant in the town. Aside from that, residential building has a sustained pace which means those more residential houses are being built. In the case of commercial construction though, one can see that Toyota’s presence in the town will boost its economy as more commercial building are being out up in Woodstock.

Kelly Morrison of the Woodstock Business Improvement Area says, “We would have grown and progressed - but this has just given it that 'wow' factor.” The Toyota plant will be hiring 2,000 workers when it becomes fully-operational by next year. Aside from that, the assembly facility is also expected to create hundreds of jobs more.

Michael Harding, Woodstock’s mayor, is confident that the city will receive a big boost from the presence of the assembly facility in their backyard. “It creates wealth in the community. If you always have service level jobs, there's a whole lot of disposable or discretionary income,” he proclaimed.

It was the hardworking employees from Ontario though that can be considered as the reasons for the building of the Toyota facility on Woodstock. Two years ago, Toyota announced that they picked Woodstock to be the location of their next assembly plant then. In spite the fact that American cities offered higher subsidies, Toyota decided in favor of the Ontario town. The reason being pointed out by analysts is the successful Toyota Cambridge plant also located in Ontario, just 40 kilometers away from Woodstock.

The said assembly plant was built in 1988 with a budget of $400 million, today the facility has grown to represent a $3 billion investment for the automaker which also produces auto parts for Canadian consumers like Knock sensor Canda. Due to Toyota’s evaluation that workers from Ontario are well-trained, they chose the town of Woodstock as the base for their additional auto assembly plant in Ontario.

The level of education of workers plays a key role in the success of an assembly plant. Nissan and Honda have been reported to have been struggling in terms of production in some auto assembly facilities in the United States. The reason is that these automakers locate their plants where workers are not as well-trained as they want them to be. The result of course is confusion in the working place.

When the Toyota plant opens in Woodstock on September next year, it will be producing units of RAV4s. Toyota announced that upon completion, the facility will have an annual production output of 150,000 RAV4 SUVs.

Source:  Amazines.com