Federal, provincial politicians leave door open to foreign workers' involvement in Honda deal

Parties to the massive Honda EV investment deal reached this week have tacitly acknowledged that foreign workers will be involved in setting up the proposed auto plants, while attempting to downplay an issue already seized upon by the federal Conservatives.

In response to questions throughout the week, federal officials, their provincial counterparts and executives for the automaker have talked about «optimizing» or «maximizing» the number of Canadian jobs — leaving the door open for foreign workers to work on facilities resulting from the historic $15-billion deal.

In an interview on that aired Sunday, Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli was more direct, saying that there would be «short-term technical experts» brought in to install equipment and train Ontarians.

«You need the technical experts. They're going to come in — not only to help install, but train hundreds and then thousands of the employees on how to use the equipment — and then return,» he told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.

The practice of foreign workers coming in to work on auto plants — which have received tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer support over the past several years — erupted into a political issue last fall when it was revealed the NextStar battery plant in Windsor would employ a number of South Koreans. Canada's Building Trades Unions (CBTU) accused the company of sidelining local workers — which NextStar denies — and last week sent a letter asking the prime minister to intervene.

Conservatives this week cited the NextStar case and argued the same thing could happen with Honda.

«We can't trust that his latest announcement of $5 billion in Canadian taxpayer money [to be split between the province and federal