GM’s St. Catharines Plant in Ontario, Canada can’t escape good news. Previously, General Motors announced a $235 million investment for the facility to support the manufacture of next-generation engines. This week, GM announced another investment, this time for $245 million, to build six speed automatic transmissions. The investment was expedited by four months and the dollar amount increased in order to meet demand for new GM products. The move ensures 800 jobs at the plant.

When GM went into bankruptcy, the Canadian government swapped $8 billion in exchange for a 12 percent stake in GM – a small amount compared to the stake held by the United States. The U.S. converted $43 billion (of the total $50 billion investment in GM) into a 61 percent ownership. Kevin Williams, president and managing director of GM Canada, had the following to say in a statement:

“Thanks to the support we received, we’ve transformed our business and have a strong foundation for success going forward.”

St. Catharines will start building the six speed automatic transmissions in 2012. Once built, the transmissions will be sent to either the Oshawa Car Assembly, where the Chevrolet Camaro is presently built and the new Buick Regal will be built, or the CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll that builds the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain. GM hopes the investment will clear up a bottleneck of back orders and get its vehicles to dealers and into customer hands sooner.

[Source: Detroit News]