Officials in the province of Ontario say they will investigate to determine if Navistar breached any funding agreements with the province following the announcement that it would close the Chatham, Ont., assembly plant.


The company had originally planned to close the factory in 2003, but the shutdown was averted with a $65-million investment from the Canadian and the Ontario governments, along with employee concessions totaling $41 million annually.

Pat Hoy, the Provincial Member of Parliament for Chatham-Kent-Essex (the political riding where the plant is located), says Ontario's legal department is looking at funding agreements in the interest of Ontario taxpayers.

"If the company is found to breach any of our funding agreement we'll recover those funds," Hoy, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

On Tuesday the company announced it was permanently closing the truck plant, which has been idle for more than two years. There are currently 1,000 workers on layoff status at the plant. At its peak in the late 1990s, the facility was churning out 100-plus Class 8 trucks a day, employing more than 2,400 people, according to the Canadian Auto Workers union.