WHEN GM REVS ITS ENGINE, CANADA'S CAR CAPITAL ROARS

By Geraldine Woessner, AFP - The town of Oshawa suffered alongside General Motors when the automotive giant flirted with bankruptcy amid a global recession in 2008-9, but the good times are back for both.

In recent months, GM has announced it would hire back laid-off staff and then some for its car assembly plant here. Still, the psychological impact of the crisis lingers.

"I remember when the truck plant closed, almost 5,000 people lost their jobs all at once," former GM worker Rejean Desrochers told AFP.

The shock was especially hard for Desrochers after 28 years working for General Motors. In its early days, GM's last remaining auto plant in town employed 25,000 people. Only 3,200 workers remain today.

In a town with a total population of 150,000, GM's latest financial woes felt like an earthquake.

Ever since Canadian Samuel McLaughlin chose to build the first Buick here (the family business would later be taken over by General Motors), townsfolk have lived and died with the North American auto industry.

Subcontractors, dealers, everyone was hit in the latest economic downturn.

But in recent weeks, smiles have returned at the government jobs centre: GM vehicle sales have picked up and the company proudly announced in April it had repaid 1.4-billion dollars in Canadian and US loans, ahead of time.

"It was unbelievable," commented Brian Childerhose, as he readied to return to work. "My wife also worked for General Motors. I got laid-off, my wife got laid-off, we had to sell our house, so it was pretty tough for two years for my wife and I. And now, I've got some good news, I'm going to be going back to GM."

Locally, GM's renaissance is due primarily to the success of its Camaro 1960s retro-styled sports car, which is built here and sold across North America.

The new Buick Regal will also be assembled in Oshawa starting in 2011.

"We've got two shifts coming in," GM spokesman Tony LaRocca said. "One will be about 700 employees, and that will start in November, and the other is about 600 employees, coming back in October."

Bars and restaurants near GM Canada's Oshawa headquarters and assembly plant are packed of late and the mood is mostly positive. Patrons are eagerly expecting to be recalled to work; a few who lost everything last year, however, remain cynical.

"I don't expect to get call back, no," said a 55-year-old man.

"I think it's getting a little bit better, the economy is starting to turn around. But there were so many changes for everybody. It's always good for Oshawa if they (GM) improve, maybe they will help us, but right now, it's still so hard for a lot of families," added a 40-year-old man.

General Motors is back, but at a high cost for its employees who agreed to cut their wages and benefits, and the Canadian government still owns a big chunk of the company -- 10.6 billion dollars worth, which it received in exchange for its bailout of the company.