Canada has agreed to provide billions of dollars in incentives in a deal with carmaker Stellantis to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the province of Ontario, as the country tries to boost its clean-energy supply chain and woo major projects.
The plant in Windsor, Ontario – a $3.8bn (five billion Canadian dollars) joint venture to supply EV batteries for a significant portion of the North American market – was billed by the federal government as the largest-ever investment in the country’s auto sector.
But Stellantis suspended the project in May, saying Canada had not delivered promised subsidies.
In a statement on Thursday, the Ontario and Canadian governments announced that a deal had been finalised and would include “performance incentives” to Stellantis of up to $11bn (15 billion Canadian dollars).
“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 governments said.
Canada and Ontario also said the agreement extended to a large Volkswagen EV battery cell manufacturing plant in St Thomas, about 190km (118 miles) east of Windsor.