With Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu pointing fingers at each other over hundreds of layoffs at the Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay, one had to turn to others to hear any sense at all.

Toronto Mayor John Tory came through with the hard truth that the core problem at Bombardier — no new big orders coming in — doesn’t seem to be Ottawa’s fault or Ontario’s fault so much as Bombardier’s fault.

“We can’t just do business with them because we feel badly about the workers,” Tory said on Wednesday. “We care about that deeply, but we have to make sure they’re going to deliver a quality product on time and on budget to us.”

Certainly, Donald Trump’s ratcheting up of Buy America policies has created an increasing challenge for this rail-car manufacturing plant to get new U.S. contracts. But Bombardier has also failed to secure new contracts in Canada, most notably Via Rail’s billion-dollar contract for new trains that went to its German rival.

That’s unfortunate but understandable given Toronto’s experience with endless delays and repair problems with its streetcar contract has made the city and others wary of sending new work Bombardier’s way.

Thunder Bay Mayor Bill Mauro also spoke good sense when he said his city will do everything it can to support the plant, while continuing to “grow and diversify the economy.”

He rightly spoke of the need for more knowledge-based jobs that don’t face the same ebbs and flows as those in manufacturing, which are always dependant on the next contract.

Ontario and Ottawa should work together, instead of playing the ridiculous blame game both sides were so keen to engage in, to see what might be done to save Bombardier jobs but not at any cost. And certainly not without doing much more to help transition all our traditional manufacturing communities into ones that can thrive in the new economy, not just hope to survive it.

But none of that big picture thinking that came so easily to the mayors was on display in the war of words between Ford and the federal Liberals.

That’s no great surprise. For Ford, this isn’t just about 550 jobs or who builds the TTC’s next stock. These layoffs serve as the latest issue to use in his ongoing campaign against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals heading into October’s federal election.

“I haven’t seen hide nor hair from the federal government,” Ford said from the gathering of the provincial and territorial leaders in Saskatoon. “Where is their money? They’ve done absolutely nothing to support these people in Thunder Bay. We have a plan sitting there that can keep these people employed.”

Ford was referring to his $28.5-billion, 12-year plan to redraw Toronto’s transit future, which he sprung on an unwilling city three months ago. Given how many unanswered questions remain about his grand transit vision it can’t even be called a plan yet.

That means Ford’s “plan” actually serves to hold up transit investment more than anything. And during his giddy announcement of his “faster, better, cheaper” transit vision he said the province would pay for it all if Toronto and Ottawa didn’t cough up their allotted $17.3 billion share.

But since it suits him now, the fact that Trudeau hasn’t signed over billions of dollars to fund Ford’s half-baked transit plan, that’s suddenly the reason Bombardier issued layoff notices to half its Thunder Bay workforce.

It’s absurd and its par for the course with Ford.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Tory is right to question Bombardier’s abilities. The company must prove it can deliver an on-time quality product to regain trust and bring in new orders. And Thunder Bay’s mayor clearly knows his city’s safest future comes through a diversified economy.

It would be nice if the premier could set aside his partisan war with the federal Liberals long enough to start seeing some of this.

Read more about: