Western Star to Receive B.C. Funds

The government of British Columbia has announced plans to invest in Western Star Trucks Holdings, a venture that could result in partial government ownership of the private truck-making company in Canada.

Douglas Shand, marketing manager at Western Star, hailed the action’s unusual nature.

“A provincial government has invested taxpayer dollars in a profit-making company, instead of as a bailout,” he said.

Christine Little, director of communications for the Ministry of Employment and Investment, said the government had made such investments in the past. Also, Premier Glen Clark cited a government policy of “investing in companies such as Western Star” to help create “new, high-paying jobs for British Columbians.”

The Canadian province will invest $60 million, which will be used to develop an industrial park in Kelowna, where Western Star will build a manufacturing facility.

“The plant will have a capacity of [producing] 40 trucks a day,” said Shand, “and we have invited our suppliers to set up facilities in the same industrial park.”

Shand said Western Star’s existing Kelowna plant would be closed when the new one is completed, but that the new plant, together with a facility under construction in Charleston, S.C., will “more than double the company’s Class 8 truck capacity to 80 trucks a day” (12-21, p. 26).

For the full story, see the May 17 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.