The mayor of London has privately met with Canada's prime minister in an effort to preserve over 3,000 London-area jobs, which hinge on a $15 billion arms deal between Canada and Saudi Arabia.
While attending a meeting of Canada’s Big City Mayors in Ottawa on Monday, Mayor Ed Holder sat down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to address the uncertainty that has been hanging over the employees of London-based defence contractor General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS). London MPs Peter Fragiskatos and Kate Young were also present at the meeting.
The Trudeau government has been under pressure to cancel the multi-billion dollar deal GDLS landed in 2014 to provide Saudi Arabia with armoured vehicles. The calls to cancel the contract came after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
The federal government is also working to resolve significantly delayed payments by the Saudi government, which are causing General Dynamics payment difficulties with its suppliers.
"This is somewhat of a complex situation but the sense I have is that if the prime minister is able to preserve those jobs with that contract, then I'm optimistic and hopeful that is what he will do," Holder told BlackburnNews.com, adding that he strongly felt that the two politicians are on the same page."I don't think it's an easy or quick fix that we'll have, but I feel that the prime minister and his government are committed to getting this resolved."
From his perspective, Holder said Trudeau intends to preserve the contract with Saudia Arabia to ensure the jobs remain in London.
"That's the logical and easy way to do it," he said.
Holder said the local government is extremely concerned about the situation, which he called "critical" and local politicians are doing everything in their power to protect the jobs at GDLS.
"You have to feel for them. If you're a General Dynamics employee or someone whose job depends on that contract, clearly you're going to have some serious concerns," he said. "These poor folks and their families have been dealing with this before Christmas and it would be great to bring it to some resolution."
The mayor said going forward, he plans to maintain the connection with the prime minister to ensure the workers are given some good news in the not too distant future.
"It's my intention to follow up with [Trudeau] on a quite regular basis and, certainly, work with him in any way that we can," said Holder.
