“In Muskoka, it is small-town Ontario. It relies a lot on parts plants, tool and die, machining shops. When the auto sector production is being transferred offshore, then everything else crumbles around it,” said Hargrove.

Hargrove spoke with Metroland North Media last week, moments after Magna International alerted him that it would permanently lay off about 400 employees or 25 per cent of the workforce at its plant in St. Thomas on Sept. 8.

“It’s almost daily I get a call from somewhere, from auto parts manufacturers who are cutting a shift or plant or going into bankruptcy. It is a tragedy.”

The outspoken union leader was asked his opinion on the impact the industry’s woes is having on regions like Muskoka, which have supplied the auto sector with parts for years.

Plants such as Dura Automotive (seat adjusting systems) and Hidden Hitch/Cequent Towing (aftermarket trailer hitches) are no more, leaving hundreds of people out of work.

In October 2006, Dura Automotive Systems Inc., the Michigan-based automotive manufacturing company that operates Dura, filed for bankruptcy protection. Six months later, the corporation announced it was permanently closing the Bracebridge plant, which occurred in 2007.

TriMas Corporation, the parent company for Cequent, announced last October it was shutting down the Huntsville plant by the end of the year.

Algonquin Automotive has held its own, but has gone through three rounds of layoffs in the past two years. The most recent came two weeks ago when 36 jobs were eliminated at the Huntsville and Bracebridge manufacturing and technical facilities. This was the company’s first permanent layoff of production members since 1988.

Hargrove said this is the same story across the province for regions that rely heavily on the auto industry.

“The problem is that the industry — GM, Ford and Chrysler — is losing market share to the imports, and the Japanese and Koreans have a great market but they won’t open it up to our products. We have no way to offset the losses. They are taking away our market share and we can’t sell in their country. The government has to act on this or we are going to lose our auto industry. I am convinced of that. It will be a shell of itself within the next four to five years.”

He said he has “been screaming for several years” that the federal government should force the Japanese and South Koreans to open up their markets on the same basis as Canada opens its market to their products.

“If not, then we should restrict the imports from those countries. Twenty-five per cent of Canada’s market is supplied from countries that don’t allow us to sell in their country. We are almost on par with the U.S. with the level of imports coming into their market.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in Muskoka last week to announce plans to host the 2010 G8 Summit in Huntsville, disagreed with Hargrove.

“If we spent all our time as a government listening to those who tell us just protect the borders, protect the industries, protect the existing assembly lines, I could tell you all we will do is . . . hold the jobs for a year or two, but eventually we will lose everything. We have got to be part of the next wave,” he said.

Hargrove said unless the government steps in to assist the auto industry, future impacts on regions like Muskoka will continue.

“I’d like to say it’s over, but it isn’t. It’s going to get worse.”

With files from Bruce Hickey