Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says he's confident General Motors Corp. will turn its financial troubles around and pay the province back billions of dollars that were given to the company to ensure the success of its restructuring plan.

"We've really pushed them up against the wall in terms of the conditions we've exacted," he told a scrum of reporters at Queen's Park on Tuesday. "I think we've laid the foundation for a promising enterprise.

"I believe in time, this business will grow and that in time, we will recoup our shareholder investment," he added.

The federal government has said it will remain cautious in expecting the beleaguered company to reimburse the bailout loan but Canada's industry minister said Ottawa is already planning its "exit strategy," from GM.

GM was forced to file for bankruptcy protection as part of a restructuring plan. The U.S. and Canadian governments approved the plan and agreed to help get the company back on its feet with a US$40 billion loan. Canada and Ontario are responsible for $9.5 billion of the loan.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said he's hopeful GM will be back up and running as a privately held company in the next few years.

"We do have an exit strategy with the Obama administration, selling our equity stake over the next several years in chunks in an orderly transition into a company that will be privately held again," he said in an interview with Canada AM on Tuesday.

The "new" GM has been divided up between the U.S. government (60 per cent), the Canadian government (12.5 per cent), the United Auto Workers (17.5 per cent) and unsecured bondholders (10 per cent.)

He said both the U.S. and Canadian government approved a bailout loan for the struggling Detroit-based automaker because of the company's conservative estimates in their business plan.

"Basically they're saying car sales overall will be flatlined at 10 million units per year. That's what we were at at the depth of the recession last quarter," he said, speaking from Ottawa. "Every indication is that the car market is starting to rebound in the U.S. so we think this is a fairly conservative estimate.

"We have confidence in their numbers and as the car market improves, we can start getting our equity out," Clement said.

Clement said not approving a bailout loan would have forced the company out of Canada.

GM put deals in place

Officials at General Motors say they hope they can follow the lead of U.S. automaker Chrysler LLC who was also forced to file for bankruptcy protection at the end of April.

Industry analysts predict Chrysler could emerge from bankruptcy as early as this week after a judge overseeing the company's case approved a deal that would see the automaker's assets sold to Fiat.

Analysts believe GM had put several deals in place before filing for bankruptcy that will allow them to reorganize quickly.

"They had a lot of their ducks in a row because the terms of the government financing forced them to get all the parties to the table in a very, very short period of time," said Sharon Lindstrom, managing director at Protiviti, a business consulting firm.

GM worked feverishly to nail down a deal with their employees - going back to the bargaining table twice in Canada after the government ruled it had to make deeper cuts to its agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers Union.

The company also struck a deal with most of its bondholders and negotiated the sale of its Opel division in Europe all ahead of filing for bankruptcy Monday morning.

Late Monday night, GM China Group President Kevin Wale said the company is in the process of selling their Hummer brand. Plans for their Saturn brand will be announced in the coming weeks.

The U.S. government has said it expects GM to emerge from bankruptcy in two to three months.

"The record of the company over the last decade has not been a stellar one but new management is in there, they've already made a lot of important decisions," Clement said, referring to the number of operation cuts the company has announced. "It shows the seriousness of what GM is facing but also shows their serious about getting to the solutions as well."

Lessons from Chrysler

Lindstrom noted that the rival companies each face a different set of challenges. GM is a much larger and more complex operation than Chrysler, which makes the case a bit more complicated. However, Chrysler is facing a tight June 15 deadline with Fiat.

Nonetheless, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said the company has learned a few things from Chrysler's case.

"Certainly the court showed that it can address 363 (sale) transactions in an expeditious fashion," Henderson said Monday during a news conference. "Particularly in our case with what will be a very large 363 transaction."

During Monday's hearing, GM Attorney Harvey Miller said the automaker only has about $2 billion in cash left over. He said the company needs to go through the court process quickly in order to make a successful recovery.

"If there's going to be a recovery of value, it's absolutely crucial that a sale take place as soon as possible," Miller said in his opening statement.

GM's bankruptcy filing is the largest ever for an industrial company. The company, which says it has $172.81 billion in debt and $82.29 billion in assets, will be back in court on June 30 for a sale hearing.

With files from The Associated Press and a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss