Deputy Prime Minister ‘boosts’ Lakeshore company with tour
Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland visited Reko International Monday.
“I wanted to give you guys a little bit of a boost, a little bit of the spotlight and the cameras and the reporters that comes with me being here,” Freeland said.
Freeland said her visit, the second one in less than four months, was meant to highlight the automotive company.
“I’m glad to support a company that is lead by a women. There aren’t that many in this sector and I do think it’s important for women leaders to support each other,” said Freeland.Chrystia Freeland is touring Reko Automation in Lakeshore, Ont., on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. (Michelle Maluske/CTV News Windsor)
Diane Reko is the CEO of the company which was started by her father back in 1976.
“My dad was interviewed in a Red Cross refugee camp after leaving Hungary,” Reko told the media Monday. “At the end of the interview the Red Cross interviewer said you are exactly the kind of person that Canada needs and my dad spent his entire life proving her right.”
According to their website “Reko Automation is an experienced systems integrator and supplier of automation solutions to manufacturers across North America.”
Freeland spent time Monday meeting with employees in a gathering that was not open to the media.
Employees showed Freeland how Reko builds car parts for various automakers using robotic press machines.
“It was so inspiring to see the work you are doing. To see the way you are embracing the future,” said Freeland. “You are building the machines that companies around the world are going to use. I’m so proud that you are doing that here in Canada.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
China and Russia: A long, complicated friendship
Chinese leader Xi Jinping just concluded a three-day visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a warm affair in which the two men praised each other and spoke of a profound friendship. It's a high point in a complicated, centuries-long relationship.

Calgary doctor performs spine surgery on conscious patient
Last month, Dr. Michael Yang, a spine surgeon at Foothills Medical Centre, performed a discectomy to remove the damaged part of a herniated disc in the spine, on a patient who was wide awake.
Doctors expected to testify in Gwyneth Paltrow's ski trial
More witnesses are expected to testify on Wednesday in a trial about a 2016 ski crash between Gwyneth Paltrow and a retired Utah man suing her and claiming her recklessness left him with lasting injuries and brain damage.
'I'm a Canadian': MP named in foreign interference report speaks out, refutes claims
The Liberal MP who allegedly benefitted from Chinese election interference is speaking out against the report, categorically stating the foreign government did not help him in his nomination campaign.
5 remain missing as rescuers continue search through wreckage of Old Montreal fire
The search for victims continues in Old Montreal Wednesday, nearly a week after a major fire left at least two dead and five missing. Rescuers are slowly but surely combing through the historic building, which contained multiple illegal Airbnb units at the time of the fire.
Don't assume U.S. minds are made up about Safe Third Country treaty: Canada's envoy
President Joe Biden's administration is not dismissing out of hand the idea of renegotiating the bilateral 2004 treaty that governs the flow of asylum seekers across its northern border, says Canada's ambassador to the U.S.
Shake Shack to come to Canada in 2024 with first location set for Toronto
Canadians with a hankering for Shake Shack's juicy burgers soon won't have to cross the border to satisfy their cravings. Toronto-based private investment firms Osmington Inc. and Harlo Entertainment Inc. announced plans Wednesday to bring the U.S. fast food giant to Canada.
So many doctors are being driven away by Idaho abortion ban that this hospital can't deliver babies anymore
An Idaho hospital has announced that it will no longer be able to deliver babies because the state’s near-total abortion ban — one of the most extreme in the U.S. — has driven so many doctors away.
Canada's stockpile of ventilators up from 500 to 27,000 after push to procure them
Canada's race to procure ventilators for COVID-19 patients in the early days of the pandemic had researchers, scientists, industry and a notable astrophysicist working 'night and day' to design machines that could be quickly manufactured domestically.