On May 15, Stellantis (formerly Fiat-Chrysler) announced it was halting construction of its heavily-subsidized EV battery plant in Windsor, and demanded more subsidies from Trudeau's federal government and Doug Ford's Ontario government. The announcement came less than a month after Trudeau announced upwards of $13 billion in public subsidies to Volkswagen setting up an EV assembly in St. Thomas.
Last year, the Stellantis/LG EV battery plant in Windsor was originally priced at $4.1 billion. That number is now $5 billion, and now there's talk of the long-term subsidies costing billions more in the wake of the Volkswagen windfall. Sensing an advantage, Stellantis has launched this brazen blackmailing of the Canadian taxpayer, and is hoping the widespread disgust with Trudeau becomes the focal point of this corporate looting of the public purse.
Folding immediately to Stellantis's demands, Ford raised his provincial handout to Stellantis from $1 billion to $1.67 billion. Trudeau is next. This isn't the only Trudeau-Ford handout to Stellantis. In May 2022, Trudeau and Ford announced a $500 million each to expand Stellantis research & development - more public money for private profits and corporate-owned intellectual property.
After being rinsed in the NAFTA renegotiations with the Trump administration, Trudeau's Liberals have set themselves up again for a massive corporate rip-off. But should we be surprised after the $100 billion CEWS corporate slush fund during the pandemic? The Liberals are all too willing, and the corporations are pressing their advantage and are being allowed to loot the public purse.Meanwhile, organized labour has no response because Unifor, which dominates Canada's unionized auto sector, has been pursuing a strategy of concessions for investment since the big sellouts to Liberal PM Paul Martin and to Canadian auto parts giant, Magna.