THUNDER BAY — Company officials with Alstom say a new $500-million contract they’ve signed with the Ontario government to upgrade over 180 additional GO Transit rail cars will ensure continued work for between 200 and 250 workers for an additional five years.
Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria was in Thunder Bay on Jan. 15 to make the announcement at the Alstom plant. He was joined by company officials and Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Kevin Holland.
“We need to continue to have the skilled labour force that you do right here — very unique skill sets — as we build our transit across the province,” Sarkaria said. “We need to continue to build upon that capacity.”
“Ultimately, (Premier Doug Ford) wants to see more jobs right here in this plant and for the people of Thunder Bay and across Ontario.”
The work effectively extends the length of time the Thunder Bay facility will be working on refurbishing rail cars for GO Transit — a regional public transit service for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. It’s a division of Metrolinx, a provincial Crown agency.
In 2021, the province placed an order for 94 GO Transit rail car refurbishments, with that work expected to wrap up in 2026. Wednesday’s announcement means work will continue on the additional coaches from 2026 until 2031, said Josee Ouellet, Alstom’s vice-president of services for North America.
“For our people, the great workers that have been working here in this plant — for them, too — it gives them security, it gives them line of sight, it allows us to attract more talent if needed,” she said.
For the plant employees, the additional work is a relief, said Justin Roberts, the president of Unifor Local 1075.
“It's putting a lot of minds at ease and knowing that we have a future and we're going to stay open and some of our members will be able to make retirement off of this,” he said.
“Without having anything officially on the books, our members do start to worry about the doors closing with the lack of work and contracts coming to an end,” Roberts continued. “So having this contract come in is a nice reassurance that the doors are not going to close.”
According to the province, the upgrades to the cars will include new seating, doors, flooring, walls and ceilings, upgraded washrooms, updated electrical outlets — which will include USB ports — and new HVAC control systems.
Gaining more experience in that type of work also expands the type of jobs the local plant can perform going forward, Ouellet said.
“It also allows this plant to become good at, not only building new cars — which they were — but now being able to have a different art which is modernizing, overhauling, and that often is work that doesn't need five years before it hits the plant," she said. “It's work that comes much faster.”
