KEY POINTS:
General Motors and Chrysler will get US$3.3 billion ($5.74 billion) in government loans from Canada and may get even more.
The good news for the crippled carmakers comes a day after the US agreed to lend the two carmakers US$17.4 billion in emergency loans to keep them operating.
Canada and the province of Ontario said they would advance General Motors' Canadian unit C$3 billion ($4.3 billion) and Chrysler would receive C$1 billion. Borrowers must accept limits on executive compensation and report "material" transactions of more than C$125 million.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper declined to say what penalties the companies would face if they had to file for bankruptcy and could not repay the loans.
"We will not allow a catastrophic failure" of the Canadian auto industry, Harper said.
About 400,000 Canadian jobs are at risk if the US car industry collapses.
After the US package was announced, General Motors chief executive Rick Wagoner said the loans granted were enough to get through March.
"Beyond that, we'll have to see how it develops."
- AGENCIES
