“The feds need to draw the line somewhere because taxpayers can’t afford to bankroll everyone and their dog who wants to make batteries,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Taxpayers Federation, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
“It’s wrong for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to choose big corporations over struggling taxpayers and it’s wrong for the opposition leaders to sit on their hands and say nothing.”
On July 5, the federal and Ontario governments and Stellantis reached a deal to resume the construction of the electric vehicle battery factory in Windsor, Ontario. The deal follows more than a month of negotiations after Stellantis stopped building the plant, claiming the federal government had not delivered on its promises.
The Department of Finance confirmed the federal government has agreed to spend $10 billion on the plant, while the Ontario government will pay for the remaining $5 billion. The agreement between the governments also extends to Volkswagen’s plan to build its first overseas electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, meaning it could receive up to $13 billion in performance incentives.
It said in a news release that NextStar Energy, which had a joint venture with Stellantis and LG Energy Solution, signed a “binding agreement that secures the future of battery cell and module production in Windsor.”
“We are pleased that the federal government with the support of the provincial government came back and met their commitment of leveling the playing field with the [Inflation Reduction Act],” Stellantis North America chief operating officer Mark Stewart said in a joint statement with LG Energy.
The deal comes after just over a month of negotiations following a decision by Stellantis to stop building the plant, saying the federal government had not delivered what was promised and threatened to move the plant elsewhere.
The plant was announced last year and it was expected to create 2,500 jobs, with all levels of government to provide financial support.
In 2022, the federal government initially gave Stellantiss $529 million in federal aid, but the offer was increased 19 times after the company paused production to demand matching subsidies equivalent to the $16.3 billion awarded to Volkswagen to build the battery plant.
The subsidies for the three plants in St. Thomas, Brampton, and Windsor are six times the cost of all annual federal aid to all corporations in Canada. The Department of Industry, in 2018 testimony at the House of Commons industry committee, said that federal aid for corporations averaged $5.5 billion a year.
On June 7, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canada is “building the economy of the future,” and that “everyone in the world would dream of having a Stellantis plant in their jurisdiction.”
“We’re winning. We’re in the big leagues. We land these mandates. Stellantis will get done, Volkswagen has been done, and others are looking. So it’s creating momentum for all sorts of investments to come to Canada,” he said.
