Canada will provide up to C$15 billion ($11.23 billion) in production incentives for a Stellantis-LG Energy Solution (LGES), electric vehicle battery plant, the federal and Ontario governments said on Thursday, a day after the companies said construction at their plant would resume.
The production incentives – Reuters reports – agreed with Stellantis and LGES trump a similar deal with Volkswagen announced in April, as Ottawa competes with Washington to woo major clean-tech projects.
The subsidies deal resulted in construction resuming at the Stellantis-LGES plant in Windsor, Ontario, after the companies halted the project in May and demanded Canada match support available in the U.S. under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). “Today’s announcement will protect and create thousands of good-paying jobs for workers, including unionized jobs, as we establish an end-to-end electric vehicle supply chain to strengthen the clean economy,” the federal and provincial governments said in a joint statement.
Canada has said projects like the Stellantis-LGES and Volkswagen battery plants would be “anchors” for a pivot to clean tech. The country – home to a large mining sector for minerals including lithium, nickel and cobalt – is trying to lure companies involved in all levels of the EV supply chain as the world seeks to cut carbon emissions.