Ontario Minister Confirms Foreign Workers to Play Role in Setting Up New Honda Plants

Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli speaks at the podium during the daily press briefing at Queens Park in Toronto, on June 2, 2020. Rene Johnston - Pool/The Canadian Press

Foreign workers will be involved in setting up the four proposed Honda electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing plants in Ontario, the province has confirmed.

Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli said “short-term technical experts” will be brought in both to install equipment at the plants as well as to train Ontarians.

“You need those technical experts,” Mr. Fedeli said April 28 on CBC’s “Rosemary Barton Live.”

“They’re going to come in not only to help install but train hundreds and then thousands of the employees on how to use the equipment—and then return. They really are short-term technical experts.”

He said the province is “insisting” the four Honda plants hire Ontario workers, but the federal Conservatives are questioning the use of taxpayer dollars to fund foreign employees.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced April 25 Ottawa will invest $2.5 billion in the deal with Honda through the EV Supply Chain investment tax credit and the proposed Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit. The government of Ontario will also invest $2.5 billion in the form of various direct and indirect incentives.

Honda is set to build a battery plant next to its assembly plant in Alliston, Ont., which it is retooling to produce EVs as part of the company’s $15 billion project.

Tory MP and industry critic Rick Perkins said his party is bringing a motion to the Government Operations Committee on April 29 to force the Liberal government to “reveal the truth about Canadian taxpayer dollars being used to hire foreign replacement workers instead of Canadian workers.”

“Instead of covering for Justin Trudeau and his tired government like they did last time, the NDP must support this motion and not help Trudeau block the release of this critical information,” Mr. Perkins wrote in a letter posted on social media on April 26.

“The choice for the NDP is simple. They must either side with Conservatives, Canadian union workers and taxpayers, or help Justin Trudeau hide the truth from Canadians again.”

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said Ottawa needs to stop writing “blank cheques” without ironclad guarantees for unionized workers, but did not say if he would support the Tory motion.

“There needs to be guarantees baked into any public dollar we spend, and should be tied to jobs and investments that benefit Canadians,” Mr. Singh said.

“It should not be that we just give a blank cheque to a company and say we hope that you hire Canadians.”

Previous Project

This is not the first time the issue of foreign workers coming to work on Canadian auto plants subsidized by taxpayer money has been an issue.

The arrival of workers from South Korea to help set up the NextStar Energy EV battery plant in Windsor, Ont., sparked controversy last fall when MPs and unions voiced concern that $15 billion in taxpayer subsidies could be used to hire foreign employees. The plant is a collaboration between Stellantis and South Korea-based battery maker LG Energy Solution.

Concerns rose again earlier in April causing Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) executive director Sean Strickland to pen a letter asking the prime minister to look into the use of temporary foreign workers to build the Windsor plant.

“We are writing to request your personal intervention to resolve the ongoing use of international workers in the construction of Stellantis and LG’s NextStar EV Battery Plant in Windsor, Ontario,” Mr. Strickland wrote in the letter obtained by Toronto Star.

“Over the last several months, Canada’s Building Trades Unions have diligently worked to secure an agreement to ensure Canadians are employed in the construction and installation phases of this project, through several months of fruitless meetings with Stellantis and LG. Our efforts have so far failed due to LG and Stellantis’ intransigence.”

The federal Conservatives have cited the NextStar case as proof that the issues surrounding use of foreign workers are likely to surface at the Honda plant as well.

“We can’t trust that his latest announcement of $5 billion in Canadian taxpayer money to another large multinational corporation will be any different,” Mr. Perkins said in a joint statement with Tory international trade critic Kyle Seeback on April 25.

Mr. Perkins, in his April 26 notice of motion, asks the Government Operations Committee to request all contracts, memorandums of understanding, and other agreements related to the construction of all EV battery facilities in Canada.

His motion suggests the committee look into all provisions relating to the hiring or use of foreign workers and guarantee for Canadian jobs.

Workers ‘Need and Deserve Assurances’

The Conservatives and CBTU are not alone in their concerns about the foreign worker issue.

Unifor National President Lana Payne has also expressed concerns.

“As exciting as it is to build the auto sector of the future, we can’t lose sight of the instability this transition brings to autoworkers. We know this because we are living through it right now in Ontario. Our members are living through it,” Ms. Payne said in a statement on April 25.

“Honda workers and those in the supply base will have many questions that deserve answers. Questions about job security, income security during the transition, and what their job of the future will be. They will need and deserve assurances.”

Honda currently employs more than 4,000 people in Ontario, according to an April 25 Honda Canada news release. They are non-unionized, but employees have held conversations around joining Unifor.

The Japanese automaker said it will strive to establish a comprehensive EV value chain where the EVs will be manufactured entirely in Canada, from the procurement of raw materials mainly for batteries to the production of finished vehicles. It expects production to begin in 2028. Once the plant is fully operational, it will produce as many as 240,000 EVs per year, the news release said.

The company also confirmed it will be investing $15 billion in the project, which includes the EV battery plant, the retooling of the existing assembly plant in Alliston, as well as two key battery parts facilities located elsewhere in Ontario. The locations for the two battery parts facilities will be announced in the future.

The Canadian Press and Chris Tomlinson contributed to this report.