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With GM plant closing, Ontario loses its golden goose

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Maybe it was a brother. Or a sister. An uncle, a cousin, a friend. Maybe even — like this writer — it was your own dad who once worked within that wonder of industrial wonders, GM’s sprawling auto plant in Oshawa.

Almost a million square metres under a single roof. A facility so vast you could fit 600 hockey rinks inside and still skate circles around General Motors Canada’s crown jewel without getting snow on your face.

And now, unthinkably for multiple generations of middle-class southern Ontarians who knew its power to change lives — to feed, house and bankroll futures, so that the children of autoworkers could spring forth with college-educated hope — GM Oshawa will be mothballed. A manufacturing behemoth whose roots stretch all the way back to the horse-and-buggy era is soon to be dust.

Can we still call ourselves the Golden Horseshoe, now that GM is about to strangle what for decades was the golden goose? For those raised to understand Ontario’s place as the engine of industrial Canada, Oshawa was, decade upon decade upon decade, the spark plug.

“I owe my entire livelihood to GM,” Oshawa native Bronwyn Cawker, a Toronto chef, told the Star. “From my grandpa, who worked managing the stamping plant to support a family of eight, to my father, who apprenticed there as an electrician and worked there for over 30 years to support our brood of eight, every adult I knew as a kid worked at GM in some capacity.

For anyone paying more than passing attention, Oshawa’s pain has been slow-motion agony, as the city, like the rest of the Canadian auto industry, has struggled with the twin forces of globalization and automation — and now, a wholesale shift to retool for the age of autonomous, electric vehicles. Oshawa has withstood and survived a generation of cuts that reduced the plant from its million-vehicles-per-year peak involving a payroll of 40,000 to a workforce now less than a tenth of what it was.

But amid the bailouts, buyouts, outsourcing and downsizing, GM Oshawa was still there. And if shrinking numbers showed the majority of the economic pain had already been felt, nothing quite kills like actual death. And barring what would almost certainly be controversial government intervention, GM now appears determined to mothball the facility, ending an Oshawa legacy of car-making that stretches back 111 years and beyond, back to horse-and-buggy era.

As many online commenters have noted, the symbolic heft of mothballing Oshawa means, among other things, that Col. R. Samuel McLaughlin is spinning in his grave. In 1887, McLaughlin started out as an apprentice in the upholstery department of his father’s company, the McLaughlin Carriage Works, which was doing a thriving business building and exporting horse-drawn buggies throughout the British Empire, and went on to re-engineer the vehicles for the motor age, using Buick engines.

In 1907 his McLaughlin Motor Car Company roared to life in Oshawa and soon thereafter, in partnership with GM, he became president of the newly formed General Motors of Canada. He remained on the board until well into the 1960s, when the already thriving Oshawa plant expanded into a facility that would command global interest with the arrival of the 1965 Auto Pact, the forerunner to our modern-day NAFTA free-trade agreement.

“In the 1970s China sent a large trade mission to Canada and all they wanted to do was go to Oshawa and see the GM Autoplex — they wanted to build what we had and 40 years later we are slowly but surely losing it,” said Dimitry Anastaskis, a history professor with Trent University and the author of three books on Canada’s auto sector.

“I’m not being nativist here, I’m not saying, ‘Oh it would be nice to go back to the 1950s.’ The fact is that manufacturing in Canada is going to continue to shrink, inevitably.

“But the reason the Golden Horseshoe is the Golden Horseshoe is because of the high-paying manufacturing jobs and the idea that we just walk away from that is just silly. I am an advocate for managing that shrinkage in the least painful way possible, while still retaining enough of it so that you are still a player,” Anastaskis told the Star in an interview during the three-way negotiations to update NAFTA.

“The goal needs to be managing that transition to a post-industrial economy where you still have some left — because the alternative is an entirely service-based economy that exacerbates problems around inequality and leads to a precariousness in the workforce that is so destructive and unhealthy for ordinary workers.”

McLaughlin, a noted philanthropist, steered much of his fortune to public works, donating generously to York and Queen’s universities, University of Montreal and Oshawa General Hospital, and, perhaps most memorably, establishing the planetarium in Toronto that bears his name.

East of Toronto McLaughlin’s name echoes still in such donated sites as Camp Samac, a 66-hectare (163-acre) scouting retreat in Oshawa. His former mansion, the 55-room Parkwood Estate, now a National Historic Site, occupies an entire city block in central Oshawa, where it has served as a film and TV backdrop for productions ranging from X-Men and Murdoch Mysteries.

He lived to age 100 before his death in 1972, and once was described by Toronto financier E.P. Taylor as “a man with a voice of brass, a body of iron and a heart of gold.”

McLaughlin and Oshawa, it is worth remembering, had experienced industrial disaster once before. In 1899, the McLaughlin factory in Oshawa was destroyed by fire, leaving its founders destitute and a crew of 600 jobless. But within a month, McLaughlin was able to move the men to a temporary plant in Gananoque, personally walking door-to-door in search of people willing to lend his team a place to sleep. There they were able to produce 3,000 carriages in six months, keeping the firm solvent, while the Oshawa plant was rebuilt with the help of a $50,000 loan from the city.

Years later, McLaughlin reflected upon that struggle, saying, “The Gananoque operation confirmed my belief that the willing, conscientious worker is the backbone of any business.”

Backbone. Brass. Iron. Gold. If there’s another like that today, please let Oshawa know.

Mitch Potter is a reporter and feature writer based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @MPwrites

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Anglais

Nostalgia and much more with Starburst XXXtreme

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Get a taste of adventure with Starburst XXXtreme based on the legendary NetEnt Game. The nostalgic themes are sure to capture fans of the classic version as they get treated to higher intensity, better visuals, and features. The most significant element of the game is its volatility. Patience will not be an essential virtue considering the insane gameplay, and there is a lot of win potential involved. It retains the original makeup of the previous game while adding a healthy dose of adrenaline. 

Starburst Visuals and Symbols

The game is definitely more conspicuous than before. The setting happens over a 5-reel, 3-row game grid with nine fixed win lines, which function if a succession from the left to the right reel is present. Only those players that that attain the highest win per bet line are paid. From a visual standpoint, the Starburst XXXtreme slots illustrates lightning effects behind the reels, which is not surprising as it is inherited from the original version. Available themes include Classic, Jewels, and Space. The game is also available in both desktop and mobile versions, which is advantageous for players considering the global pandemic. According to Techguide, American gamers are increasingly having more engaging gaming experiences to socialize to fill the gap of in-person interaction. Starburst XXXtreme allows them to fill the social void at a time when there is so much time to be had indoors. 

Starburst XXXTreme Features

Players get to alternate on three features which are Starburst Wilds, XXXtreme Spins, and Random Wilds. The first appears on reels 2,3, or 4. When these land, they expand to cover all positions while also calculating the wins. They are also locked for a respin. If a new one hits, it also becomes locked while awarding another respin. Starburst XXXtreme offers a choice between two scenarios for a higher stake. In one scenario with a ten times stake, the Starburst Wild is set on random on reels 2,3, or 4, and a multiplier starts the respin. The second scenario, which has a 95 times stake, starts with two guaranteed starburst wilds on reels 2,3, or 4. it also plays out using respin game sequence and features. The game also increases the potential with the Random Wilds feature to add Starburst Wilds to a vacant reel at the end of a spin. Every Starburst Wild gives a random multiplier with potential wins of x2, x3, x5, x10, x25, x50, x100, or even x150.

The new feature is sure to be a big hit with the gaming market as online gambling has shown significant growth during the lockdown. AdAge indicates the current casino customer base is an estimated one in five Americans, so Starburst XXXtreme’s additional features will achieve considerable popularity. 

What We Think About The Game

The gambling market has continued to diversify post-pandemic, so it is one of the most opportune times to release an online casino-based game. Thankfully Starburst XXXtreme features eye-catching visuals, including the jewels and space themes. These attract audience participation and make the gameplay inviting. The game also has a nostalgic edge. The previous NetEnt iteration featured similar visuals and gameplay, so the audience has some familiarity with it. The producers have revamped this version by tweaking the features to improve the volatility and engagement. 

That is characterized by the potential win cap of 200,000 times the bet. Starburst XXXtreme does not just give betting alternatives for players that want to go big. The increase of multipliers also provides a great experience. If the respins in the previous version were great, knowing that multipliers can go hundreds of times overtakes the game to a new level. 

Players should get excited about this offering. All of the features can be triggered within a single spin. Whether one plays the standard game or takes the XXXtreme spin route, it is possible to activate all of the features. Of course, the potential 200,000 times potential is a huge carrot. However, the bet size is probably going to be restricted and vary depending on the casino. It is also worth pointing out that a malfunction during the gameplay will void all of the payouts and progress. Overall, the game itself has been designed to provide a capped win of 200,000 times the original bet. 

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Anglais

‘We’re back’: Montreal festival promoters happy to return but looking to next year

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In downtown Montreal, it’s festival season.

In the city’s entertainment district, a musical act was conducting a sound check on stage Friday evening — the second day of the French-language version of the renowned Just For Laughs comedy festival. Tickets for many of the festival’s free outdoor shows — limited by COVID-19 regulations — were sold out.

Two blocks away, more than 100 people were watching an acoustic performance by the Isaac Neto Trio — part of the last weekend of the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique, a celebration of music from the African continent and the African diaspora.

With COVID-19 restrictions continuing to limit capacity, festival organizers say they’re glad to be back but looking forward to next year when they hope border restrictions and capacity limits won’t affect their plans.

Charles Décarie, Just For Laughs’ CEO and president, said this is a “transition year.”

“Even though we have major constraints from the public health group in Montreal, we’ve managed to design a festival that can navigate through those constraints,” Décarie said.

The French-language Juste pour rire festival began on July 15 and is followed by the English-language festival until July 31.

When planning began in February and March, Décarie said, organizers came up with a variety of scenarios for different crowd sizes, ranging from no spectators to 50 per cent of usual capacity.

“You’ve got to build scenarios,” he said. “You do have to plan a little bit more than usual because you have to have alternatives.”

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Anglais

MELS new major movie studio to be built in Montreal

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MONTREAL — MELS Studios will build a new film studio in Montreal, filling some of the gap in supply to meet the demand of Hollywood productions.

MELS president Martin Carrier said on Friday that MELS 4 studio construction will begin « as soon as possible », either in the fall or winter of next year. The studio could host productions as early as spring 2023.

The total investment for the project is $76 million, with the Quebec government contributing a $25 million loan. The project will create 110 jobs, according to the company.

The TVA Group subsidiary’s project will enable it to stand out « even more » internationally, according to Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau. In the past, MELS Studios has hosted several major productions, including chapters of the X-Men franchise. The next Transformers movie is shooting this summer in Montreal.

Péladeau insisted that local cultural productions would also benefit from the new facility, adding that the studio ensures foreign revenues and to showcase talent and maintain an industry of Quebec producers.

STUDIO SHORTAGE

The film industry is cramped in Montreal.

According to a report published last May by the Bureau du cinéma et de la télévision du Québec (BCTQ), there is a shortage of nearly 400,000 square feet of studio space.

With the addition of MELS 4, which will be 160,000 square feet, the company is filling part of the gap.

Carrier admitted that he has had to turn down contracts because of the lack of space, representing missed opportunities of « tens of millions of dollars, not only for MELS, but also for the Quebec economy. »

« Montreal’s expertise is in high demand, » said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, who was present at the announcement.

She said she received great testimonials from « Netflix, Disney, HBO and company » during an economic mission to Los Angeles in 2019.

« What stands out is that they love Montreal because of its expertise, knowledge and beauty. We need more space, like MELS 4, » she said.

There is still not enough capacity in Quebec, acknowledged Minister of Finance, the Economy and Innovation Eric Girard.

« It is certain that the government is concerned about fairness and balance, so if other requests come in, we will study them with the same seriousness as we have studied this one, » he said.

Grandé Studios is the second-largest player in the industry. Last May, the company said it had expansion plans that should begin in 2022. Investissement Québec and Bell are minority shareholders in the company.

For its part, MELS will have 400,000 square feet of production space once MELS 4 is completed. The company employs 450 people in Quebec and offers a range of services including studio and equipment rentals, image and sound postproduction, visual effects and a virtual production platform.

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