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Ontario Economy

Canada can build an electric vehicle industry worth $48B a year — but it must act now: report – by Don Pitts (CBC News Business – September 14, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/

Canada needs a strategy quickly in order to capitalize on payoffs in jobs and economic growth

As climate change shows its growing destructive power in floods and droughts worldwide, even strong advocates for the transition from using fossil fuels to battery-powered electric vehicles know EVs won’t be enough to fix the problem.

But as the North American auto show opens to glitz and fanfare, a new report from two reputable Canadian research groups says that Canada has a brief window to be a major player in transforming an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually into something more climate friendly — and to make money doing it.

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Ontario’s top auto sector minister heading to Korea, Japan to drum up more EV and battery investments – by Mehanaz Yakub (Electric Autonomy Canada – September 2, 2022)

https://electricautonomy.ca/

Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s minister of economic development, job creation and trade is heading to Asia next week to meet with several key global automakers and battery manufacturers, with a goal of further building the province’s evolving auto and electric vehicle sector.

In an interview with Electric Autonomy Canada, Fedeli says the trip will begin in South Korea, where he will meet with “several prospects” to help expand Ontario’s EV supply chain. Fedeli would not name who these prospects will be, but says that the government has been meeting with them for “some months” and they are companies they “hope to land” in Ontario soon.

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‘It’s shameful’: Critics slam Doug Ford’s plan to replace nuclear power with natural gas – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star – August 23, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

Ontario’s plan to replace electricity generation when an aging nuclear plant closes in 2025 has critics saying the province didn’t get the memo on the growing dangers of climate change. Of six new contracts announced by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) on Tuesday, four are for power to be generated by burning natural gas, while the other two — for wind and energy storage — account for less than 10 per cent of the 764 megawatts under contract.

Energy Minister Todd Smith defended the procurement, made in the wake of last year’s IESO warning that phasing out gas-fired power plants before 2030 would result in rotating blackouts and higher electricity bills because alternate supply and transmission lines could not be built in time.

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‘It’s shameful’: Critics slam Doug Ford’s plan to replace nuclear power with natural gas – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star – August 24, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

Ontario’s plan to replace electricity generation when an aging nuclear plant closes in 2025 has critics saying the province didn’t get the memo on the growing dangers of climate change.

Of six new contracts announced by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) on Tuesday, four are for power to be generated by burning natural gas, while the other two — for wind and energy storage — account for less than 10 per cent of the 764 megawatts under contract.

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OPINION: U.S. climate bill’s EV incentives are not the game-changer North American auto industry was hoping for – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – August 9, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The good news for Canada’s auto industry is that Canadian-built electric vehicles might some day be eligible for a US$7,500 tax credit under the breakthrough climate bill that U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law later this week, which scraps the Buy American provisions of an earlier legislative proposal that failed to win congressional approval.

The bad news is that, for now, the sourcing requirements in the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the U.S. Senate on Sunday thanks to a tiebreaking vote by Vice-President Kamala Harris and is slated for a vote in the House of Representatives on Friday, are so restrictive that few EVs currently on the market, or expected to be produced in the next few years, could possibly meet them.

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Tesla steps up lobbying effort with Ontario, Ottawa to set up a ‘manufacturing facility’ – by Adam Radnowski (Globe and Mail – August 9, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s ambitions of becoming an electric-vehicle powerhouse are being newly fuelled by interest from Tesla Inc. in locating a major manufacturing facility in Ontario.

While rumours of such an investment by the pioneering EV maker were kick-started last week by CEO Elon Musk’s offhand remarks during a shareholders’ meeting, an apparent recent shift in the company’s lobbying efforts offers more substantive evidence of the possibility.

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Biggest construction project in Sault’s history is now underway – by David Helwig (Northern Ontario Business – August 8, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Algoma Steel has already sunk $103 million into its $703-million electric-arc furnace facility. New buildings will start to rise either late next month or in October

Algoma Steel Inc. has already spent more than $100 million on a two-year, game-changing technology upgrade that local building officials say will be the most expensive construction job in Sault Ste. Marie’s history.

The massive project, expected to cost $703 million, will replace Algoma’s existing blast furnace and basic oxygen steelmaking processes with two new electric arc furnaces (EAFs), allowing 3.7 million tons in annual raw steel production with something like a 70 per cent reduction in annual carbon dioxide emissions.

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Science North selects a Thunder Bay waterfront site for regional expansion – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – August 5, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Former grain elevator site is the ‘preferred’ location for science attraction

A Thunder Bay waterfront location is the “preferred” spot for a permanent home for Science North’s expansion into northwestern Ontario. In a news release, the Sudbury-based science centre announced that the Pool 6 site in the city’s harbour will be the location to build its 34,000-square-foot attraction.

The property is the former site of the Pool 6 grain elevator, which was demolished and the land repurposed as part of the Marina Park redevelopment years ago. The site also hosts Great Lakes cruise ships.

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Elon Musk Suggests Tesla’s Next Gigafactory Might Be In Canada – by Dan Mihalascu (Inside EVs – August 5, 2022)

https://insideevs.com/

This is the second time Canada is mentioned as a potential location for the next Gigafactory; official announcement to come this year.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on August 4 that an announcement regarding the next Gigafactory could be made later this year.

During a speech at the Gigafactory Texas meeting dubbed Cyber Roundup, the executive talked in detail about Tesla’s vehicle assembly plants. He noted that Tesla opened two new factories this year—Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg and Gigafactory Texas—that are both building the Model Y, with the latter being the only Tesla facility that makes Model Ys powered by 4680 battery cells laid out in structural packs.

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Threat to Canadian electric vehicle industry dissipates with U.S. Senate deal – by Steven Chase (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A deal struck among Democrats in the U.S. Senate appears to have eliminated a threat hanging over the nascent electric vehicle manufacturing industry in Canada. An agreement announced late Wednesday between Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia gives the Democrats the votes they need to pass a key plank of U.S. President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

The deal would amend Mr. Biden’s climate and health bill and change the terms of tax credits for electric vehicles that as previously written would have only applied to autos assembled in the United States.

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Umicore metals refiner to build $1.5-billion Ontario factory for EV battery components – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – July 13, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Belgian metals refiner Umicore SA is building a $1.5-billion factory near Kingston, Ont. to produce components for electric vehicle batteries, the latest in a series of Canadian investments by automotive manufacturers.

Once operational, Umicore’s facility will see approximately 700 employees transform raw materials, including nickel, cobalt and lithium, into battery parts, creating what Federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne described in an interview as a “supply chain ecosystem for electric vehicle manufacturing.”

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Does Canada have what it takes to become a global EV innovation hub? – by Tony LaMantia (Automotive World – July 1, 2022)

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Tony LaMantia argues the case in favour of turning Canada into an EV mobility hub

The news that Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions are partnering on a Canadian electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing facility was transformative for the automotive industry in Canada.

It’s a CA$5bn (US$4.1bn) investment—the biggest single automotive investment in Canadian history. It will have an annual production capacity of 45 gigawatt hours and will create 2,500 jobs. It’s a pillar for the foundation of Canada’s EV ecosystem, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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Forget inflation: Stagflation, the ugly reality where both prices and job loss are on the rise, is our bigger threat – by Armine Yalnizyan (Toronto Star – June 1, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

You thought inflation was bad? Buckle up. This ride is about to get bumpier. With every passing month, inflation — seen in higher food, gas and housing costs — is squeezing your budget harder, with no end in sight.

We all want someone to do something, but the “cure” for inflation — rate hikes to cool higher prices — is almost guaranteed to be worse than the disease. Rising prices and rising joblessness is the new fear, now that it’s clear inflation isn’t a passing problem, due to wave after wave of shocks to the global economy.

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Ontario car plants get $1B boost to build electric vehicles – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star – May 2, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

On the eve of Ontario’s June 2 election call, Chrysler and Dodge factories in Brampton and Windsor are getting a $1-billion infusion from the federal and provincial governments to build the next generation of hybrid and electric vehicles.

On the eve of Ontario’s June 2 election call, Chrysler and Dodge factories in Brampton and Windsor are getting a $1-billion infusion from the federal and provincial governments to build the next generation of hybrid and electric vehicles.

The money for the automakers’ parent company, Stellantis, goes toward flexible vehicle assembly lines as the 3,000-employee Brampton plant was preparing to lose production of muscle cars like the V-8 Dodge Challenger to a factory in Illinois, where new electric versions will be made.

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Would Doug Ford actually move jobs out of Toronto? – by Steve Paikin (TV Ontario – April 28, 2022)

https://www.tvo.org/

The 2022 budget promises to move provincial agencies to smaller cities. But I’ve seen this movie before

When Labour Minister Monte McNaughton went to London earlier this week, he came bearing not much hard information but word of hundreds, if not thousands, of potential jobs.

The minister announced that the province would try to sell the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s downtown Toronto headquarters and then re-establish the agency at a new location in the Forest City. If all goes well, the Toronto headquarters could fetch as much as $600 million for the province’s coffers.

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