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Charlie Sun bought Kilroy'z Pub in Windsor, Ontario, three years ago, counting on 1,900 thirsty workers at the General Motors Corp. transmission plant across the street to secure his retirement income.

Last month, GM said it would close the factory in 2010, ending its 45-year presence in the Canadian city across the river from Detroit. Sun, 56, is trying to sell the bar and says he'll be lucky to get half the C$400,000 ($392,000) he paid for it.

``If I had known this was coming, I wouldn't have bought it,'' he said. ``People are scared, and they don't want to spend money.''

The U.S. economic slowdown is ing over the border to Ontario's carmaking towns of Windsor, Oshawa and St. Thomas, which export nine of every 10 cars they make to American showrooms. GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC cut output 11 percent in Ontario over five years, threatening the province's position as the biggest auto producing area in North America.

The reductions compound a manufacturing slump in Canada's industrial hub, where factory payrolls fell by 113,400 jobs, or 11 percent, in the past two years. A 9 percent gain in the Canadian dollar during that period makes Ontario's manufactured goods more expensive abroad, while a slowdown in the U.S. -- Canada's top trading partner -- has curbed demand.

Shedding Jobs

Manufacturing in Ontario ``is really only beginning to adjust to the massive move in the currency we saw last year,'' said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

Camden, New Jersey-based Campbell Soup Co., the world's largest soupmaker, announced in April it will close a factory in Listowel, putting 500 people out of work.

While the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are booming because of soaring prices for commodities such as oil and natural gas, Ontario, Canada's most-populous province, may slip into a recession this year, according to Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Gambling may help. Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corp. spent C$430 million to overhaul a casino in Windsor managed by Las Vegas-based Harrah's Entertainment Inc. The Caesars Windsor has a 370-room hotel and will inaugurate its new 5,000-seat theater tonight with a concert by Billy Joel. The expansion added 400 jobs, bringing the casino's payroll to 4,000.

Technology companies such as Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion Ltd. also are expanding. Toronto is the third- largest financial services center in North America, behind New York and Chicago.

Job Cuts Accelerate

Job losses in the auto industry, with about 20 percent of Ontario's manufacturing employment, are accelerating. Auto-parts supplier Magna International Inc., located in Aurora, Ontario, said yesterday it's cutting 400 jobs at a St. Thomas plant, citing slumping large truck demand.

Detroit-based GM, the largest carmaker, said this month it will close an Oshawa plant that makes pickup trucks by 2010, cutting as many as 2,600 jobs.

Last month, Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford said it will eliminate 430 jobs at a Windsor facility. Employment at Ford's St. Thomas plant, which produces sedans, fell by half in the past six years, according to the Canadian Auto Workers union.

Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler has cut the union workforce at its Ontario plants by 37 percent in the past six years to 7,999, according to the CAW.

``The trends we see through the end of 2008 are fairly gloomy. The Big Three are cutting back significantly,'' said Sabrina Browarski, an economist at the Ottawa-based Conference Board of Canada, a research group.

The cuts are rippling through the economies of cities such as Windsor and Oshawa because each auto-industry job supports seven others, the CAW said.

`Bleak Future'

In Windsor, a city of 218,000 across the Detroit River from Michigan, the jobless rate was 9.4 percent in April, or about 50 percent higher than the national average, according to Statistics Canada. Detroit's unemployment rate is 12.9 percent, according to the Michigan Department of Labor.

Windsor faces a ``bleak future'' said Bill Reeves, president of an auto-union local representing GM workers.

Ontario is partly a victim of its own success. It overtook Michigan in auto production in 2004, making 2.7 million vehicles as carmakers rolled out more of the trucks, SUVs and large sedans in demand at the time. Output has since dropped, as U.S. vehicle sales fell.

Car companies and auto suppliers reduced employment in Canada to about 181,000 people last year, down 18 percent from the peak in 2002, according to the Conference Board. None of the U.S. carmakers produce hybrid vehicles in Ontario, which accounts for about 95 percent of Canada's automotive workers.

`None Are Safe'

``If they're closing us down, none are safe,'' said Kevin O'Brien, 47, a 20-year GM veteran with two children who will lose his job as a skilled tradesman when the Windsor plant closes. ``I can't see the manufacturing coming back to Canada.''

The union-run job center for idled Ford employees in Windsor has about 1,500 workers on file looking for jobs. On a recent visit, the job board listed one company hiring: Brazilian miner Cia. Vale do Rio Doce, looking for workers at its nickel operation in Sudbury, Ontario, 724 kilometers (450 miles) away.