Thanks Mark. I’m very pleased to be here this morning. Today’s announcement is very good news. It’s good news for Oshawa, for Markham, for Kapuskasing and for the entire province of Ontario.

It speaks to General Motors’ commitment to expanding its Canadian engineering team to 1 000 people. These are well-paid, middle-class jobs that bring us closer to our objective of creating a clean economy. An economy where investments in clean, innovative technology pay off.

I first met with GM’s President, Mary Barra, back in January at the World Economic Forum.  And in our meeting, I made the case for investing in Canada.  That’s something I will always do as Prime Minister because it’s important that business leaders know that Canada is a sound place to invest, that we’re open for business; that we’re willing to work with them; to be their partners as they plan for future growth.

I want to thank the GM team here in Canada, for all the hard work they did in making the case that Canada was the best place to invest. They understand that Canada is home to some of the world’s best engineering schools.  We’ve got an incredibly well-educated workforce and a constantly growing network of innovative start-ups and suppliers.  Here in Ontario we’re home to innovation clusters in places like Kitchener-Waterloo and right here in the GTA.  We have the capacity to do the kind of advanced automotive research and production that GM rightly wants to do more of.

We know that to create good, world-class jobs, the kinds of jobs that are being announced today, we have to be on the cutting edge.  This investment by GM in jobs that will support their operations all around the world shows that we are succeeding in that regard.

In choosing Canada to be the home base for its global centre for advanced vehicle software development, GM is affirming the skills, the ingenuity, and the immense potential of Canada’s workers.  It’s a perfect fit in so many ways and I'm really glad that GM saw it that way too.

In budget 2016, we made a firm commitment to expand the infrastructure needed to support the alternative fuel vehicles that GM and other auto manufacturers are now developing.  Those are investments we need to make today so that we’re better able to support consumer choice in the future.  And I’m proud that the budget extended the federal government’s investments in the Automotive Innovation Fund by a further three years.

As we’ve seen today those kinds of investments and these kinds of partnerships are essential to creating the kind of good, well-paying jobs that Canadians need to succeed.  Today’s announcement is not an end point but just another step in building Canada’s clean growth economy, one that will deliver cleaner air, better jobs, and a brighter future for all Canadians.

I'm looking forward to taking your questions in a few minutes.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)