Canada's next EV supply chain plant landing in Port Colborne, Ont.
The next community set for a massive boost to its local economy as part of Honda Canada's $15-billion investment to establish a Canadian electric vehicle supply chain will be Port Colborne, Ont.
Company executives are expected to join Prime Minis‐ ter Justin Trudeau and On‐ tario Premier Doug Ford, as well as federal Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Ontario's economic development min‐ ister, Vic Fedeli, and munici‐ pal leaders at an official an‐ nouncement on Tuesday.
On April 25, Honda an‐ nounced a major expansion of its original Canadian facil‐ ity in Alliston, Ont., to both manufacture batteries and assemble electric vehicle ver‐ sions of its top-selling brands. On the same day, Japan's Asahi Kasei Corpora‐ tion announced a new part‐ nership with Honda to build Canada's first-ever lithium ion battery separator plant in Ontario - but the municipality that was the successful bid‐ der for this facility was not revealed.
iPolitics was the first to re‐ port that Honda would an‐ nounce a facility in Ontario's Niagara Region. Over the weekend, word spread on so‐ cial media that Port Colborne was chosen. A senior govern‐ ment source confirmed the location to CBC News on Monday.
Asahi Kasei's announce‐ ment last month said Hon‐ da's partner is investing near‐ ly $1.6 billion in this separa‐ tor facility.
WATCH | Freeland on Honda's expanding Ontario footprint
The federal and provincial governments each con‐ tributed $2.5 billion in tax credits and other govern‐ ment incentives to attract Honda's business to Ontario amid fierce global competi‐ tion for new electric vehicle manufacturing investments.
Both levels of government have yet to detail what share of these taxpayer incentives helped secure the Port Col‐ borne plant specifically.
Tax credits attract EV in‐ vestments: Freeland
Finance Minister Chyrstia
Freeland visited a child-care facility in St. Thomas, Ont. Monday and did not answer a question from CBC News asking how much the govern‐ ment is contributing for this plant or how many jobs it was counting on in return for that taxpayer contribution. Instead, she talked about how the Volkswagen battery plant now under construc‐ tion in St. Thomas is trans‐ forming that city from a com‐ munity in decline to one that's "vigorously growing."
"You can see it on the street," the minister said, linking the arrival of these EV battery plants to the overall success of her government's economic plan.
WATCH | Breaking down Honda's $15B EV invest‐ ment:
Freeland called on all par‐ ties to help pass two budget bills that implement the Lib‐ eral government's new suite of investment tax credits, in‐ cluding its new supply chain tax credit specifically de‐ signed to encourage vertical investments like Honda's.
"It's not some abstract thing," she said. "Getting these credits passed into law is what we need to make in‐ vestments like the Honda in‐ vestment real, to get that money coming into our coun‐ try and to get the jobs that it brings."
Winnipeg was in the run‐ ning to host the separator plant, touting Manitoba's ability to provide renewable electricity and critical miner‐ als. However, Manitoba's cap‐ ital was outbid by southwest‐ ern Ontario.
Quebec also missed out on a Honda manufacturing facility. When the company revealed last month that it would locate all of its new plants in Ontario, the Legault government complained the Japanese carmaker had be‐ come too greedy.
The other Ontario munici‐ pality that's in line for a cathode active material and precursor (CAM/pCAM) pro‐ cessing plant, as part of a joint venture with South Ko‐ rea's POSCO Future M Co., Ltd., is expected to be an‐ nounced by Honda in the coming weeks.
Amid rising concerns about the affordability of electric vehicles for con‐ sumers, Honda has predicted it will cut its battery-making costs by 20 per cent through the kind of vertically inte‐ grated supply chain it's es‐ tablishing in Ontario.
The province is already home to a ready network of automotive parts suppliers and offers a relatively clean electricity grid, as well as con‐ venient highway and bridge access to its valuable Ameri‐ can consumer market.
Canada and Japan are both members of the Com‐ prehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that allows for reciprocal labour mobility, as well as preferen‐ tial tariff treatment for auto‐ motive parts and vehicles, if its requirements for regional manufacturing are satisfied.