TORONTO (Reuters) - General Motors Corp is committed to billions of dollars in capital spending and research and development in Canada under the terms of a rescue package that will cost Ottawa and the province of Ontario up to $9.5 billion, senior government officials said yesterday.

GM said it would spend C$2.2 billion ($2 billion) on capital projects in Canada through 2016, and C$1 billion on research and development. The company has also agreed to maintain 19 percent of its Canada-US production (16 percent of its NAFTA production) in Canada in exchange for the aid, the officials said.

The officials said that if Canada had not provided the funding to GM, tens of thousands of Canadian jobs could have been lost.

"We saw the 'what if we do nothing scenario' as pretty scary," one official said.

Canada and Ontario will receive an 11.7 percent equity stake in a new General Motors, which will have its initial public share offering in 2010. Officials said the two governments will have fully divested themselves of their equity stake within eight years.

GM pledged to start producing a new engine module at its St. Catharines, Ontario, plant in 2014 as part of the deal, the officials said.