If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to save automotive jobs, he should “prove it” and kill the planned federal “carbon tax,” Premier Doug Ford says.

The Ontario Premier let loose on Trudeau, Unifor President Jerry Dias, General Motors and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath Wednesday, accusing them all of offering GM workers false hope that their jobs can be saved.

“All we hear is a bunch of powerful people grandstanding, deflecting, selling false hope, making empty promises but in private, they know the GM plant is not coming back.” Ford said, after an “emergency” cabinet meeting Wednesday on the pending shutdown.

“A few words to the Prime Minister -– your officials have said in response to this crisis all options are on the table – prove it … scrap your carbon tax.”

Trudeau can’t campaign for a carbon pricing plan and bemoan the loss of manufacturing jobs, he said.

Ford said he’ll raise the issue with Trudeau at a first ministers’ meeting next week in Montreal.

Trudeau said his government has strengthened the CPP, lowered small business taxes and invested in an accelerated capital cost allowance program to help make businesses more competitive,.

Putting a price on carbon is another way to grow the economy, he insisted.

“Of course our hearts go out to the workers in Oshawa who are facing these cuts,” Trudeau said Wednesday. “The best way to secure jobs for the future is to take genuine action on climate change and help our economy and our families to thrive through the transition to a lower carbon economy, that is what we are doing.”

GM Canada announced this week that it will cease operations at its Oshawa facility next year, cutting 2,600 employees and imperilling thousands of more jobs in the supply chain.

Horwath has accused Ford of waving a white flag, accepting the job losses without a fight.

Dias has vowed to fight the closure and called on the federal government to consider steep tariffs on any vehicles that GM tries to bring into Canada that were manufactured in Mexico.

Ford said he’s going to try to find new job opportunities for the GM staff and other workers in the province.

aartuso@postmedia.com