GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre (left)

Breaking now: General Motors just said that it has made payments to both the U.S. Treasury and Canadian federal and Ontario provincial governments to start paying down the emergency government loans made by the respective countries.

GM confirmed today the company returned $192 million to Canada, and $1 billion the U.S. Treasury. Aggregately, GM still owes both nations $5.77 billion.

The Canadian government firstly committed $2.8 billion in emergency loans to the Canadian auto sector, a proportional amount based on Canada’s 20-percent North American auto sector market share.

Over the last year, GM has taken extraordinary measures to raise and conserve cash, including announcing massive layoffs and plant closures, selling other key assets including selling its entire stake in Suzuki back on November 17, 2008, and most recently, announcing today it would close the Saab brand.

GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre said today in a statement that the automaker is hoping to repay the total outstanding debts by June 2010 assuming no other material adverse macroeconomic events take place that could adversely affect future earnings.