TORONTO — Canada's prime minister said Monday his government doesn't expect to get back the bulk of the billions it is spending to help bail out General Motors but said the country would have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs if it hadn't joined with the U.S. government in aiding General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada risked losing its auto industry to the U.S. if it hadn't provided a $9.5 billion bailout to GM. Canada has no carmakers of its own, though Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. has just bought GM's Opel unit in Germany and chief executive Frank Stronach says he intends to make cars in Canada.

Harper called the bailout a regrettable but necessary step to keep GM in Canada. Ford Motor Co., as well as Chrysler, also operate there.

The Canadian and Ontario governments, which are contributing $6.2 billion and $3.2 billion respectively, will own more than 12 percent of a restructured GM. Canada will appoint one independent director. The governments have already agreed to lend more than $3 billion to Chrysler.

Harper said the federal and provincial governments don't expect to get the bulk of the money back from GM.

"Clearly taxpayers will get some money back when the day comes that we begin to sell our equity share, but to be frank we are not counting on that," Harper said.

"We are not factoring that into our budgetary plans. We are counting on a significant return on the debt portion but on the equity portion we're assuming up front, we will be assuming that that's a 100 percent cost. Obviously it will be something lesser than that long term, but we're not making any assumption of getting large amounts of money back."

Under the deal, GM will not file for bankruptcy protection in Canada as it has in the United States.

Harper, when asked if Canadian taxpayers could be asked to pour more money in the auto sector, said the amounts announced are sufficient for restructuring — calling it a one-time cost.