WINDSOR, Ontario _ Ford said Thursday it will invest $900 million ($1.2 billion Canadian) in its Canadian plants and a new research and engineering center in Ottawa, where it has hired about 300 former BlackBerry engineers to work on connected car development.
The automaker said it has also hired another 100 former BlackBerry engineers based throughout the U.S.
Ford said its investments include $526 million for plants and $376 million for the engineering center. The investments are backed by a $154 million commitment from the Canadian and Ontario governments.
The plant commitments were made to Unifor, Canada's major auto workers union, during contract talks in November. Thursday's announcement came after a tense year in which union and government officials worried that the future of the entire Canadian automotive industry was at stake because of declining production and decisions by a number of automakers to forgo new plant investments.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ford's decision to expand its engineering presence in Ontario is a signal that automakers see Canada as a potential source of innovation and not just automotive production.
"This is also an emotional day for me. ... My father broke the sod and ground on this plant almost 40 years ago, in 1978, and this morning I got to hold the shovel that he used to do it," Trudeau told several hundred Ford workers at the company's Essex Engine plant in Windsor. "There is more work to be done. But today this is a big step forward."
Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of the Americas, said $451 million of the investment will go toward retooling Windsor Engine and Essex Engine plants to prepare them for a new global engine program.
That investment will secure the future for about 500 workers.
"Five years ago, the pundits and the predictors gave up on this plant," said Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. "We did not give up, Unfior's Jerry Dias did not give up and the leadership in this plant did not give up, and that's why we are here today."
The automaker's investment in Canada comes just three days after it said it would invest $1.2 billion in two plants and a new data center in Michigan.
Ford operates two engine plants _ Essex Engine and Windsor Engine _ in Windsor. The company makes a 5.0-liter V-8 engine at Essex Engine and a 6.8-liter V-10 engine for heavy-duty trucks and large vans at Windsor Engine.
Unifor said Ford has committed to replace the 6.8-liter V-10 engine produced at the Windsor Engine with a new engine sometime after 2020. Unifor also said Ford committed to continue to make the 5.0-liter engine at the Windsor plants. Ford, however, has not publicly confirmed those plans.
One of the plants will produce engine parts while the other will assemble the engine, Hinrichs said.
In Ottawa, the majority of the newly hired engineers came from BlackBerry, which stopped making its own phones last year. Those engineers have extensive experience working with QNX, the operating system that powers Ford's SYNC 3 technology, Hinrichs said.
"QNX is a very important part of our connectivity system, including our infotainment system. They will be working on current systems, and the next generation of our connectivity," Hinrichs said. "It's more than just infotainment. It will include the connectivity to the outside world."
BlackBerry, in a statement, said it struck a deal with Ford, allowing the "skilled mobile solutions engineers" to join Ford as the Canadian tech company restructures from a hardware to a software company.
"The move enables us to focus all our resources on the new strategy. No engineers from BlackBerry QNX were part of the transfer," BlackBerry said in its statement. "This transfer allows Ford to double its connectivity engineering workforce."
Unifor President Jerry Dias said Ford's announcement shows what can happen when the union, federal government and automakers work together.
"We've got $1.2 billion reasons to be here and to celebrate today," Dias said. "It's a great day for all of us."
