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Hey Chris, I've done a lot of marketing research in the area of robotics and automation. This is my last week in this job (start with a new company on Monday!) but we manufacture machined components for one of the worlds largest robot manufacturers. Part of this research showed just how involved robotics will be in the very near future and surprisingly, just how many NEW jobs will be created because of them. Yes, robotics will eliminate many jobs but as you pointed out, they don't operate autonomously and the amount of service, programming, repair, design, setup, etc. jobs will be massive. In fact, industry experts are predicting that for people will to retrain, the introduction of robotics will offer them greater employment opportunity both in volume and compensation. Robotics are N. America's answer to low cost offshore labour and without them, we cannot compete and the downhill slide will continue. Even those job functions you mentioned requiring a human's touch will soon be influenced by automation. Google the term cobot if you're unfamiliar. They are robots designed to work directly and safely with humans through the use of pneumatics and pressure sensors. Not trying to sound callous or uncaring but I've working in manufacturing my entire working career and seen the slow, deliberate downslide here in N. America at all levels. The last company I managed got "right-sized" (crappy term for permanent layoffs) and under direction of the owner we went from 106 employees to 16. The jobs got moved to Poland where skilled 5 axis machinists were being paid $6 an hour. In Ontario this story is extremely common and the number of lost jobs at the small business levels total WELL beyond the 3000 employees at GM and the spin-offs. These companies do not get government subsidies or tax breaks. They don't get news teams showing up and they don't have union leaders threatening to fight the closings. They don't have employees making $60/hour for simple task procedures and they don't walk off the job in protest. In Ontario, for the majority of people the death of manufacturing has been silent. To be frank, it seems a little silly to act surprised or outraged that a company such as GM has decided to rid itself of the shackles of a union that was more than willing to kill the golden goose.

Matthews has been cleared to play tonight. Imagine being 2 pts out of first place overall, and then acquiring William Nylander and Auston Matthews in free agency...lmao

The Japanese automotive boom crushed the north american automotive manufacturing sector. I think the large majority of people would trust the reliability of a tacoma or tundra over any north american truck any day of the week. And in GM's case when the trucks cost just as much...sounds to me like you are only selling trucks to people that have always bought a GM just because Japan meant garbage back in they day...doesnt sound like a great business model to me. Visit Japan, you will immediately understand why their automotive sector is doing just fine. They do almost absolutely everything better than us, except play hockey. (infastructure, transit, education, pollution etc etc.) Hard work is embedded in their culture, good luck competing with people that feel like working yourself to death is an honourable thing to do...no joke. I can assure you their success is not because of cheap mexican labour.

You think it doesnt happen? It does all the time. Cats too. My buddy found his cat in pieces on his front lawn. How do you think his 5 yr old daughter felt when he had to tell her it was eaten by a coyote? I know a few people who have lost dogs too, and one was a king sheppard, so yes, yotes do kill pets and livestock all the time. The farm my wife works at constantly has yotes circling their two dogs. One is a 90lb lab, the other is a 100lb king sheppard. He can't let them out at night without bringing a loaded shot gun and a big light. Where I live, there are a lot of them, and they are a nuisance. I'm not saying what these guys did is right, but maybe that yote was a problem. S.

Like that coyote killed anything but rabbits and grouse, lol.

Regardless of all the politics and Bull; it's still a shame to see GM pulling out of Oshawa; it's the end of an era. This old girl was built there, back in 1950; she's my pride and joy. 1949 was the first year for this body redesign post WW2. The original truck plant was opened in 1918, good bye centurion. Dan.

Anyone relate this to that tune from way back In the year 2525 when man becomes useless, everything is done by machines. It's coming early, so much done by robotics, robots teaching robots. What do you do when there's no work.

I love to hear things like this Brian when a company is so close to the employees that it is a family type atmosphere. I have found this is possible when a company is small enough to stay in touch with each other and they have the family picnics and know the employees family members by name. The reality is when a company goes from this to being a company with shareholders and policies that affect 100's to 1,000's of employees it has to be done with a broad sweeping brush that does not try to make everyone happy but tries to give something to everyone while protecting the shareholders that they answer too. I am not saying it is fair nor will I say it is always right but it is the way business is done. I have stocks as most of us do and if a company keeps losing money whether the reason is it is trying to be nice to the employees or it is failing for any reason we will pull out of the company as an investor. The deals that may have been made in the past had a way for GM to legally close the plant regardless of if it has or has not repaid the debt to ?Canada? Sorry I do not know anything about the loan so I can't speak on it. If they are walking away from a debt then it appears the penalty for doing that is less than telling the shareholders that they lost 4-6 billion dollars. I will watch to see how this unfolds because it appears there is a piece missing. A major company does not close down a division in a foreign country unless it is no longer profitable to keep it there. It could be union demands are excessive, the cost of electricity and materials are to high, or government subsidies are being lessened and eating away at the profits. The biggest and hardest thing for people to do is to distance themselves mentally from the fact that a business has to survive first before it can have any compassion for the employees. While harsh it is business 101 similar to cutting off a gangrene rotting foot to save the life of the person. It is not the first choice nor a pleasant choice that has repercussions down the line but the person lives to fight another day. Art

I hear ya Art, but it's the $3.5 bill grant from the tax payers to bail out GM in 2009 that makes their decision to close Oshawa a little personal and disappointing.

Art I have been with this company for 24 years now. It was super profiting when I started. Profit sharing to every employee was great. Then the slow hit. Still the company plugged along. Profit sharing slowly dwindled then stopped. Some were not happy. I was happy to have a job. A pay stub at the end of every 2 weeks. I would sooner give up the profit share then lose my job. Company hit a low. Had to cut days and use UI to compensate for lost wages, yet no one was let go. They even cut the ground crew that took care of the property. They asked if I would take it over. They bought a lawn tractor,mower,wiper sniper, and I did it for a full summer. Twice a week. After that one year, we started to pick up again. Everyone back to 40 hour weeks. Slowly we got back to full swing. Profit sharing had come back bit by bit. Restructuring was the big come back. After all this, we are back to getting customers coming to us. Like I mentioned before, we are expanding, and going to get busy. Having an owner that cares makes a world of difference. Family owned. Proud to be a member of this family.

That’s was the point I was trying to make that until we here what lead up to the beating. How can one be judge and jury maybe it killed their beloved pup maybe just punks but untill I know the facts I will not come to a conclusion on the killing

They work great can confirm

That's the kind of mentality the kids in the video probably learned from their parents. Coyotes aren't an exotic, invasive species. They've expanded their home range because of what humans have done to the landscape. A coyotes main food source is rodents, mice, groundhogs, rabbits etc., not fawns and poodles. You're better off shooting humans if your goal is to return Ontario to it's natural state, before the white man came.

Uggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! Reaching a point it's hard to turn on a computer, TV or phone nowadays.