Bombardier to lay off 60 employees in Thunder Bay

Superior Morning4:40Bombardier Layoffs

There is a lot of pressure on Thunder Bay's Bombardier plant to build street cars. But some changes mean layoffs for local staff.Officials with Bombardier confirmed Friday that 60 workers at its Thunder Bay plant will lose their jobs.

The company said it will move production of light rail cars for Metrolinx in the Toronto area to a plant in Kingston, Ont. That move will free up space in the Thunder Bay plant to produce more streetcars for the Toronto Transit Commission.

'What we're doing now is taking bold and decisive actions to make sure that we hasten delivery of the TTC streetcars, which is essential to make sure we have solidarity with our customers, solidarity between our Ontario workers, and throughout our entire workforce," said Marc-Andre Lefebvre, a spokesperson for Bombardier.

Lefebvre said the company needs to make this move, to ensure it can meet its production deadline of 204 streetcars by the end of 2019. Currently, 17 streetcars have been delivered to the TTC.

Another Bombardier plant, in LaPocatiere, Quebec will take over the manufacturing of certain parts, such as frames for the streetcars, and will ship those parts to Thunder Bay.

"Once they build them, transfer those parts to Thunder Bay, and to an eventual second line for manufacturing and assembly that will be put in place for the TTC streetcars."

Lefebvre said the Thunder Bay plant has a number of orders, and will continue to be busy for the coming years.

He said the Thunder Bay operation will continue to focus on manufacturing GO Transit bi-level cars, as well as TTC streetcars and TTC Rocket subway cars.