But don't take my word for it:
First there was the $13-billion deal with Volkswagen to build a battery plant in St. Thomas, Ont. Then, after Stellantis-LG Energy Solution objected, the government more than matched that deal for a plant in Windsor, Ont. And then it added another almost $5 billion for a Northvolt battery plant in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Que. (previously best known as the site of a PCB warehouse fire in 1988).
The announced total of these deals was $37.7 billion, though the parliamentary budget officer reported in November that the real cost would be more like $43.6 billion. And we know that when the spending actually starts, with Ottawa in charge, “Versailles’ the limit,” as you might say. And now, right on cue, there’s another $5 billion for a new Honda EV/battery operation in Alliston, Ont. ...
These days Canada’s GDP is running at almost $3 trillion a year; the $43.6 billion Ottawa is spending on just the first three big EV/battery deals is about 1.5 per cent of GDP. That’s real money with real consequences. Especially when the government backs it up with rules and prohibitions.
The prime minister, who has no background in business, is nevertheless fond of talking about “the business case” for things. There is no business case for exporting liquefied natural gas (though it’s an established thing), he told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who came asking for help just after Russia invaded Ukraine. But there is a business case, apparently, for exporting hydrogen (though it’s not yet an established thing).
Whether there’s a business case for electric vehicles is a question that most of the rest of the world currently seems to be asking. If you’re the head of a car company that has made big bets on EVs, you must be seriously worried that demand for them is falling. You may even be scaling back production because dealer lots are filling up with unsold cars.
But in Canada, there is no such self-doubt. Doubt be damned, the government powers ahead. First there’s the torrent of money it is pouring into the industry. And then there’s the banning of competing technologies: no new gasoline-powered cars after 2035, no matter how wonderfully efficient this technology, now well into its second century, has become. Plus a hard cap on oil and gas emissions, which pretty much means a hard cap on oil and gas output.
Economists would say: tax carbon at a price reflecting the damage it does and then see what happens. If there’s an energy transition, fine. If there’s no energy transition, that means the damage done by burning carbon-based fuels is less than the benefit they produce.
But this government says: There must be a transition. We insist on a transition. And to make sure it happens we need to get businesses to stop teetering and fall off the fence into the transition. So we create the business case by forcing the issue with subsidies firms can’t say no to and rules that knock any competition out of business.
A demand means a supply will follow.
The government is creating both at the same time.
**
Who did you vote for, unions?:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was told Monday by a top union leader that grave concerns remain about the hiring of foreign workers at a flagship EV battery plant in Windsor, Ont., when skilled Canadians are available to do the jobs.
In a keynote discussion with the Prime Minister at the annual conference of Canada’s Building Trades Unions in Gatineau, union leader Sean Strickland told Mr. Trudeau that the concerns that emerged last year about the hiring of hundreds of Korean and Japanese workers at the EV factory have yet to be resolved.
Mr. Strickland, CBTU executive director, appealed to Mr. Trudeau for help to ensure that skilled Canadian workers – including those with experience installing and maintaining equipment for the plant – would get priority over foreign workers for jobs, and that companies would stick to their promises to hire Canadians.
“We have grave concerns when there are projects – particularly one in Windsor – where international workers are going to work when Canadians have the skills and the training. It’s not about knowledge transfer. In this case, they have the skills and the training and are available to work,” he said.
The NextStar EV plant in Windsor is being built with up to $15-billion in subsidies from the federal and Ontario governments. It is a joint venture between global auto giant Stellantis and South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution.
NextStar disclosed last year that 900 temporary foreign workers would be coming to install technical equipment at the plant and going home once the work is done.
More:
Conservative MPs are pushing Ottawa to release details of its agreement with Honda Canada to build a sprawling electric vehicle operation in southern Ontario — disclosure they say is necessary to ensure Canadians get all the jobs in the multi-billion-dollar project.
The push for transparency comes after Canada's Building Trades Union (CBTU) wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this month asking him to intervene on another EV project, the NextStar plant in Windsor, Ont. that's backed by Chrysler parent company Stellantis and Korean firm LG.
The union said foreign workers are displacing Canadian labourers at the NextStar construction site while 180 local millwrights and ironworkers are unemployed and available to perform the necessary work.
"Canadian workers are now being replaced by international workers at an increasing pace, on work that was previously assigned to Canadian workers," wrote Sean Strickland, CBTU's executive director, in an April 10 letter to Trudeau.
You voted to get stabbed in the back.
That's on you.
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