THUNDER BAY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid a virtual visit to the Alstom plant in Thunder Bay, days after announcing a new streetcar order with the TTC will bring more work to the struggling facility.
Trudeau met with Alstom executives and local workers during the video call, as well as local leaders including Mayor Bill Mauro, Fort William First Nation Chief Peter Collins, and local MPs Patty Hajdu and Marcus Powlowski.
Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Catherine McKenna also participated.
The virtual visit demonstrates “how important this plant –and this city, really –is for this government,” said Powlowski in a statement.
Trudeau announced earlier this week more work would be coming to the plant as part of a more than $500 million funding agreement between the federal and provincial governments and the City of Toronto.
That will fund an order for 60 new streetcars from the Alstom plan, along with an expansion of TTC storage facilities.
The former Bombardier plant, which was sold to French company Alstom as part of a 2020 deal, has boasted a workforce as large as 1,100 workers, but that has fallen below 300 as the plant struggled to generate orders.
