Thank you, Minister MacKinnon, Minister Hajdu, Marcus Powlowski, Mathieu Paquette, and Michael Keroullé.
Thank you to the Alstom workers here with us today. When Canada looks to build, it looks to you. It is your skill, your dedication, your resilience, that makes today possible.
We are standing on the historic grounds of the Canadian Car and Foundry, better known as “Can Car”.
For more than a century, the workers here have built what this country needs to move and connect: railway cars, streetcars, and buses.
And, in the darkest days of the Second World War, they built what the free world was counting on: the Hawker Hurricane. The fighter that helped win the Battle of Britain. More than 1,400 of them came off the floor of this plant. At the peak of production, it was 15 a week. Built by nearly 5,000 Canadians, nearly half of them women.
That is what Thunder Bay does. When the country needs something built, we come here.
You are the story of Canadian industry – the spirit, ingenuity, and people that carry this country forward.
Building big, building fast, and building Canadian.
As you sense, and as Canadians know, that strength is more important than ever.
Because Canada is being tested. Two weeks ago, we made the right decision to suspend our trade negotiations with the United States. We could not accept what they had offered, and we would not give what they had asked.
As a result, the U.S. has imposed new tariffs designed to hurt and divide us.
That’s a miscalculation, because Canadians will always take care of each other. It’s a miscalculation because we have everything we need to build the country we want. We have the reserves, we have the resilience, and we have the right plan.
Nothing can divert us from our goal of building a strong Canada. On the contrary: every challenge strengthens our resolve to move forward. And this is just the beginning.
Fundamental to our plan is building what this country needs here at home, with Canadian materials, Canadian ingenuity, and Canadian workers.
We need more clean, reliable power, so we have launched a clean energy deal with enough power for every vehicle in Canada.
We must keep our sea lanes open and keep our economy moving. That is why we launched the largest shipbuilding contract in Quebec’s history. It will build six program icebreakers, create 5,000 good jobs, and establish a new generation of shipbuilding in Canada.
When we need power, we go to Canada. When we need new icebreakers, we go to Canada. When we need new subway cars, we build new cars for Toronto’s Line 2 – and you’re building them right here, at Alstom.
Right across Canada, we need new ports, mines, and energy corridors. In just a year, we have referred 27 nation-building initiatives to the new Major Projects Office, representing half a trillion dollars in new private investment. Shovels are already in the ground at the Darlington New Nuclear Project, at the Contrecœur Terminal at the Port of Montréal, at Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie Mine, and on the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
Crucially, as we build, we are restoring our industrial might and capacity: reinforcing the factories and the supply chains, and building the talent that lets a country stand on its own. Because, for too long, we bought from abroad what we were more than capable of building at home.
We are bringing that work back, and turbocharging it.
Canada needs better, more reliable passenger rail. The rail cars on our long-distance and remote routes are more than 70 years old. They were built when the NHL had six teams. When goalies did not wear masks and the Leafs would win the Cup. Those old cars have served our country well, but they are long overdue for retirement.
It is time to build new ones and to build them here at home.
To that end, I am proud to announce that the Government of Canada is investing $4.7 billion to manufacture and maintain passenger rail cars for VIA Rail’s long-distance, regional, and remote fleet here in Canada.
For the first time in four decades, VIA’s passenger cars will be produced and assembled in Canada. Cars that used to be built in the United States will be built right here in Thunder Bay at Alstom Canada, by the best workers in the world.
This is the largest investment in VIA Rail’s history and the largest in intercity passenger rail in a generation. And it doesn’t stop there.
Five weeks ago, we announced a nearly $2 billion investment to build a new fleet and new facilities in Montréal, where the cars will be assembled and maintained.
We are building the capacity to manufacture every component of these trains right here in Canada. We are bringing this industry back home.
And we are going to move quickly: the first train car will enter service by 2031, and the entire fleet will be in service four years later.
These 313 next-generation passenger cars will be made in Canada. They will be built in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, on Montréal’s South Shore, and manufactured and assembled in Thunder Bay, with support from the Alstom factory in La Pocatière, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region.
The construction of this fleet will directly support nearly 700 good jobs in Ontario and Québec.
In line with our Buy Canadian policy, Alstom will leverage and expand its extensive network of more than 900 Canadian suppliers to deliver this new fleet, while maximising the use of Canadian steel.
Canadian electricians will install the wiring, Canadian machinists will make the precision parts, and Canadian welders will build the steel frames from Canadian carbon steel. The work will reach well beyond this factory floor into communities across our country.
All told, this project will generate more than $1.6 billion in economic benefits. Hundreds of good jobs. Paycheques that stay in Canada.
This work will build something deeper, because we know that rail is more than a means of transportation. It is part of our country’s story. It is a thread that has always connected us.
There is an iconic VIA service that runs between Toronto and Vancouver over four days and four nights, covering over 4,000 kilometres. Thus far, it has journeyed 150 million kilometres, equal to 195 round trips to the Moon. It serves 750 litres of maple syrup each year.
On board, many young Canadians travel across this country for the first time. Witness its beauty. Meet its people. There is no journey quite like it – where you fall asleep under the prairie sky, and wake to the sunrise over the Rockies.
It is called The Canadian. We put The Canadian on the 10-dollar bill. Because it represents the connections between us, and a great feat of engineering from Canada’s past: the joining of East and West by rail.
And now we’re here today because The Canadian will be made in Canada.
It will be one of many VIA services that will have a new generation of passenger cars.
Cars that are more energy-efficient, better for the environment, more reliable, and comfortable – engineered to run through Canada’s most extreme temperatures, so service is safe and dependable, year-round.
Cars with modern comfort and better accessibility.
And cars that keep what people love – the sleepers, the full-service dining, the panoramic views.
We are modernising The Canadian and The Ocean, which runs between Montréal and Halifax, and is the oldest continuously operating passenger train in North America.
We’re also making it possible for more people than ever to take the train. Thanks to the Canada Strong Pass, we have helped Canadians to discover their own country: over 50,000 reservations have been made, and 43 million kilometres have been travelled. That’s the equivalent of 9,000 trips across Canada.
In addition to these long-distance routes, we are protecting regional and remote services that are a lifeline for many communities – including for 165 First Nations.
On some of these routes, the nearest essential service is a train ride away. The train is how you fill your prescription, stock your kitchen, and get the care you need.
We are keeping the trains running from Winnipeg to Churchill, and from Jasper to Prince Rupert. So that a patient can reach a doctor. So that a student can get home. So that a family stays together.
We are protecting a lifeline to the communities the roads never reached to keep Canada connected.
Today, we stand on historic ground.
This place built the rail cars that opened this country, the aircraft that helped defend our freedom, and now, it will build the trains that will keep it connected for generations to come.
History is not something that is behind us. It is a foundation. Our history points our way forward.
Years from now, a young Canadian will ride The Canadian. A new car. All Canadian. Built here at home. The timeless, beautiful landscapes rolling past. That tradition, that quintessentially Canadian experience, lives on.
By renewing Thunder Bay’s tradition of rail car manufacturing, we are strengthening the city that builds what this country needs, in a time we need it most.
That’s how we build Thunder Bay strong. We build Canada strong. For all and forever.
Thank you.