Honda to invest $15B to build 4 new EV plants in Ontario

Japanese automaker Hon‐ da will make a $15-billion electric vehicle investment in Ontario to build four new manufacturing plants in the province, Prime Min‐ ister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday.

According to a govern‐ ment statement released to media in advance of the an‐ nouncement, the deal will re‐ sult in "Canada's first com‐ prehensive electric vehicle supply chain."

The deal includes the con‐ struction of Honda's first electric vehicle assembly plant and a new stand-alone EV battery plant at Honda's facility in Alliston, Ont.

"Honda will also build a cathode active material and precursor (CAM/pCAM) pro‐ cessing plant through a joint venture partnership with POSCO Future M Co., Ltd. and a separator plant through a joint venture part‐ nership with Asahi Kasei Cor‐ poration," the statement said. The locations of those plants have not been named.

Once the assembly plant is fully operational in 2028, it will produce up to 240,000 vehicles per year and create more than 1,000 "well-paying manufacturing jobs," state‐ ments from Honda and the federal government said.

Calling it the "largest auto investment in Canada's his‐ tory," Trudeau said Canada's supply of natural resources helped make the deal possi‐ ble. He added the country's greatest assets are its work‐ ers, who are "the best in the world."

Ford called the invest‐ ment "a game changer for the industry" and a "tremen‐ dous win for Ontario." He said his government is sup‐ porting the investment with direct and indirect incentives worth $2.5 billion.

"This is the first time China has been unseated from the top spot" of the global supply chain ranking, Ford said, adding that with the Honda deal, Ontario has now attracted billions of dol‐ lars in "auto and EV invest‐ ment" over the last three years.

WATCH: 'Historic' Honda EV investment will boost economy for generations, says Trudeau

At the announcement in Alliston, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrys‐ tia Freeland touted federal tax credits crafted to attract EV investment in the country.

"Thanks to this EV supply chain investment tax credit, as well as the clean tech‐ nology manufacturing invest‐ ment tax credit, Honda and its partners will benefit from upwards of $2.5 billion in support from the federal gov‐ ernment," she said.

Honda CEO

Toshihiro

Mibe told reporters in Allis‐ ton that details of his compa‐ ny's $15-billion investment will be rolled out over the next six months.

"When this project is con‐ firmed, Honda is expected to become the first automaker to utilize the EV supply chain investment tax credit," he said.

In a media statement, Honda said that in addition to the 1,000 new manufac‐ turing jobs, the deal also se‐ cures "the current employ‐ ment level of 4,200 asso‐ ciates at its two existing man‐ ufacturing facilities in On‐ tario."

Federal Conservatives slam deal

The federal Conservatives were quick to criticize the deal, saying it sells out Cana‐ dian workers and will likely end up using tax dollars to give jobs to foreign replace‐ ment workers.

"We have seen before where Justin Trudeau an‐ nounces massive subsidies that are supposed to create Canadian jobs, only to see him turn around and let those jobs be filled by foreign replacement workers and then lie about it," said Con‐ servative MP Rick Perkins, his party's critic for innovation.

"We can't trust that his latest announcement of $5 billion [which will actually be split between the province and federal governments] in Canadian taxpayer money to another large multinational corporation will be any differ‐ ent."

When the Ontario and federal governments struck a deal to build an EV battery plant in Windsor, Ont. with NextStar Energy - a partner‐ ship between Stellantis and the South Korean company LG Energy Solution - it later emerged that 900 South Ko‐ reans are set to come to Windsor during the installa‐ tion phase of the battery plant's development.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said that those work‐ ers were coming to install specialized proprietary equipment in the plant and would only work at the site for periods of three to 18 months - and would not get permanent jobs.

NextStar Energy has com‐ mitted to hiring 2,500 Cana‐ dians for full-time positions at the plant. As well, approxi‐ mately 1,600 Canadian tradespeople are expected to be involved in the construc‐ tion.

Foreign workers

That hasn't stopped Canada's Building Trades Union from raising concerns about the use of foreign labour at the company's Windsor construc‐ tion site.

Online news outlet iPolitics reported this week that the union has written to Trudeau expressing frustra‐ tion with NextStar's use of a few dozen overseas workers to do jobs that previously were promised to Canadians.

The union claimed those workers were doing jobs that could be done by local labourers, such as using fork‐ lifts and installing equip‐ ment.

Industry Minister Fran‐ cois-Philippe Champagne dis‐ missed those concerns in an interview with CBC Radio's The House.

He said that with a con‐ struction project of this size, it's normal to bring in outside help.

"Just to put that in per‐ spective, we're talking about 72 [foreign] workers out of about 2,000 on the construc‐ tion site today and of the 5,000 jobs that will be cre‐ ated," Champagne said.

He said he's stressed to NextStar and Stellantis's CEO that the vast majority of all

jobs tied to the plant should go to Canadians.

WATCH | EV deal will have 'rippling effects for generations': innovation minister

Asked if he demanded that Honda prioritize Canadi‐ ans for all possible jobs asso‐ ciated with this taxpayer-sub‐ sidized project, Champagne said "we always have under‐ takings to maximize Canadi‐ an jobs in all that we do."

In a later interview with CBC's Rosemary Barton Live, Honda Canada's president said he's "very aware of what went on" at NextStar with some jobs going to foreign nationals.

"For sure, this is not something that we want to entertain," Jean Marc Leclerc said.

Leclerc said he wants to craft some sort of "memo‐ randum of understanding" with Canada's Building Trades Union and reiterate Honda's commitment that "Canadians will have these construction jobs."

WATCH | Honda Canada president discusses $15-bil‐ lion electric vehicle invest‐ ment:

Trudeau and Ford present united front

Both Trudeau and Ford dis‐ missed criticism of the $5 bil‐ lion investment they will share in the Honda deal, say‐ ing it will create tens of thou‐ sands of spinoff jobs and po‐ sition Canada at the forefront of the green economy of the future

"The Conservative Party of Canada would have us not make that investment today. They stood against our Volk‐ swagen investment in St. Thomas Ontario, they de‐ cried the investment we made with Stellantis in Wind‐ sor and they continue to be against governments step‐ ping up to invest in good jobs of the future," Trudeau said.

The prime minister said that between now and the federal election set for Octo‐ ber 2025, Canadians will have a choice between com‐ peting priorities - which he described as balancing the budget at all costs or in‐ vesting in the future.

WATCH | Feds and On‐ tario to invest a shared $5B in new Honda EV deal:

Showcasing his partner‐ ship with Ford, Trudeau said he was "incredibly pleased to be able to be here with a Pro‐ gressive Conservative like Doug Ford who understands that investing" is how you build a strong economy for decades to come.

Ford said that since his government came to office, 700,000 new jobs have been created in his province "be‐ cause of the partnerships that we've had at all three levels of government, munici‐ pal, provincial and federal partners investing in the fu‐ ture.

"This is generational," Ford said. "This is decades and decades down the road. What price do you put on that? There is no price you can put on that because we are investing into the peo‐ ple."

The premier said the money being invested is stay‐ ing in the province and will remain in Canada for genera‐ tions to come.

Last year, federal and provincial governments an‐ nounced a number of deals with EV battery producers Northvolt, Volkswagen and Stellantis-LGES.

Governments estimated that investment at $37.7 bil‐ lion over ten years, with $32.8 billion of that going to‐ ward production subsidies and $4.9 billion earmarked to build the facilities.