Today the federal government and Ontario announced a new electric vehicle battery plant will be built in Alliston, Ontario, part of a $15 billion project from automaker Honda.
But part of that dollar figure will include up to $5 billion in taxpayer funds, consisting of up to $2.5 billion from the feds and $2.5 billion from Ontario, through tax credits, capital costs and site servicing costs. This new plant will create 1,000 jobs, says the federal government. That works out to $5 million in taxpayer funds per job.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wasn’t happy at a reporter when asked how many jobs are being created and what the cost would be. Premier Doug Ford stepped toward the podium to answer, only to be cut off by Trudeau, who snapped, “if you’re not going to listen to the answer of saying it’s going to be 1,000 jobs created, then there’s nothing we can do for ya,” then backing away.
You can watch the video below to see the Prime Minister’s testy interaction with the reporter in question:
Justin Trudeau @JustinTrudeau is starting to crack. He steps in front of Doug Ford @fordnation, to snap at a reporter. Timestamp 1:11:30 https://t.co/lSdnKa58GH pic.twitter.com/0iEHexx64D
— Jim Fannon 🇨🇦 (@jimfannon) April 25, 2024
Honda’s new EV battery plant will be built beside its existing plant in Alliston, with the latter being re-tooled to build EV parts.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is not happy about the corporate welfare and blasted the decision, calling it contradictory based on the federal government’s Budget 2024, which was all about taxing big companies more.
“The Trudeau and Ford governments are giving billions to yet another multinational corporation and leaving middle-class Canadians to pay for it,” said Jay Goldberg, CTF Ontario Director, in a statement. “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is sending small businesses bigger a bill with his capital gains tax hike and now he’s handing out billions more in corporate welfare to a huge multinational.
“This announcement is fundamentally unfair to taxpayers,” added Goldberg.
A cost to taxpayers of $5 million per job.
That’s if these jobs materialize like politicians promise. Not to mention this money will be taken from other Canadian job creators.
The government’s own records show it can’t even keep track of jobs from corporate handouts. https://t.co/KbfJTYNuTy
— Franco Terrazzano (@franco_nomics) April 25, 2024
Stellantis and LG are already getting up to $15 billion over 10 years from the federal government for their own EV battery facilities in Ontario. Both companies paused construction to renegotiate with the feds to match the U.S. offer under the latter’s Inflation Reduction Act. And it worked.
Volkswagen ended up getting the same deal as Stellantis and LG for its own EV battery plant, seeing up to $13 billion in incentives.
“If politicians want to grow the economy, they should cut taxes and red tape and cancel the corporate welfare,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Just days ago, Trudeau said he wants the rich to pay more, so he should make rich multinational corporations pay for their own factories.”
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$10 billion in spending by Honda will also fund a lot of ancillary jobs. It’s not like there were other offers on the table. There is no “create 10,000 jobs” button.
Besides, as mentioned above these are just tax breaks we’re not handing over cold cash. We give those away to companies like Bell all the time even when they cut jobs.
I can explain one problem with it – all these big projects are regional in Ontario and Quebec – but let’s see the perspective of BC then, where we help fund infrastructure in central Canada, and the main contribution we get back from central Canada is swaths of retirees, homeless and addicted to support with our provincial funding. Maybe that’s where the anger in the west comes from – where we deal with an absurd amount of violence and theft, and higher costs on everything, like insurance and property taxes so high that businesses have to close and people are forced out of their homes. In the last 3 months I’ve been evicted from the warehouse I live because the property tax was almost higher than the rent he could get, my brother in law visited from over seas was gang mugged and put in a hospital on his second day in Canada, the work trucked parked outside my new warehouse was broken into on the first night we moved, and gas costs over $2 a litre. I studied political science and there was no mystery that the high cost of anything tax or government related in BC was in some part due to provincial governments having to syphon money to pay for the insane cost of supporting the rest of Canada’s elderly and addicted. Of course I know why central Canada gets all the funding – because elections are already decided by the time we vote, so essentially western Canada is a dead zone for elections. But that won’t stop me from fuming as I’m showering at the gym tonight wishing I could afford to live in a place with a functioning bathroom
I understand your frustration, but what exactly does this investment have to do with your experience in BC? It seems to me that whether the investment is a good idea or not (irrelevant to my current point), that if the investment in a car making industry is going to be made that it has to happen in Southern Ontario where all the other car making industries are. And that is the case not because of Ontario, but because of the proximity to Detroit. So how is your experience and this investment related?
It’s Ontario and Quebec where all the votes are, it’s not rocket science
As a general concept sure, again I understand their frustration.
But again, how is that relevant to this specific investment? Should a car making investment have been made in BC?
Tell me you are voting conservative, without telling everyone you are voting conservative.
This is basically a mouthpiece article for the CTF, which has very questionable interests. I have no idea what is happening with the editorials here, but what the heck. I am not here to read CTF tweets disguised as “news”.
But hey, sure let’s cut the taxes, it will solve everything.
iPhone in Canada is the centre mouthpiece for the far right.
However, cutting taxes is certainly a start. If you believe our chronic problems can be solved, you’re as delusional as the Cons and Trump supporters.
Cutting taxes puts more in the hands of those with more; not those with less. Anyway, not here to discuss fiscal policy…
I come to this website for telecom / tech news, not politics. I get they are often intertwined but this pushes the line way too far.
What’s “way too far” about this article, exactly?
I don’t always like iPhoneInCanada but this is the best tech news website we have – in many ways because it’s apolitical. I don’t see anything “far-right” above – the news is the reaction of the PM to the very much needed question revolved around the opening of a new EV battery plant.
Tech-related? Yes. Actually happened? Yes. Has value for readers? Yes. What’s the problem then? 🙂
It is tech related, the news itself, yes. The value for reader of the article itself is very limited given the nature of the article itself. You’re free to see value in the CTF and their positions, I don’t and they are nothing more than a lobby group with very self-serving interests. If you want a CTF press release, they have a website where you can find them. Posting their tweets and the “5 mil per job” take provides no value.
The demagogic rant copying the CTF talking points saying it is a terrible investment, or the “Trudeau pushed back”, now that is worthless. The question itself is a trap, it fishes for a soundbite and nothing else. Choosing 10 seconds out of an hour long press conference with a lot of other questions is not providing any value to readers or anyone. The soundbite exists, so what? If you are not happy with the detailed answer they provided before that clip, and ask again to get your soundbite, don’t be surprised if you get the short end. Google what the CTF is, who runs it and what their interests are, you’ll see quite quickly that their focus is oh so convenient with their own narrative that anyone other than the Conservatives / UCP are “wasting” money. Their answer to anything is “lower taxes” and “efficiencies”.
The answer is clear, it has been repeated many times. It’s a direct 1000 jobs, and ensure the safekeeping of another 4,500 at the existing plant, and that’s before we consider indirect returns from people actually having decent, well paying, stable jobs, and other investments in the community. What about the construction jobs, sourcing of resources from other Canadian companies, trading? If you listen further than the clip, both before and after, Ford claims upwards of 20,000 jobs. But hey, saying 5mil per job is much more fun isn’t it.
It’s fair to argue whether or not tax subsidy initiatives like that are worthwhile. Canada is not the only country doing it, and the reality is that the next generation of manufacturing will highly depend on those kind of jobs and investments. The US have their own similar program, and given how economies are shaped, it’s a race to who offers the most. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The conservatives would claim Trudeau killed manufacturing and lost jobs for Canadians if he didn’t, or bailed corporations if he did. It’s very easy to argue if your position is to just say “no”. They are long-term bets. Quebec is doing the same, most provinces are. You bet and invest in yourself, you don’t just let your southern neighbour do it and be left on the back foot.
Nuanced takes, they can be worthwhile. This article isn’t.
APart from a clickbait title, I don’t see an issue. As per usual people are just letting their political biases play into the article’s contents.
It certainly makes the comments section interesting.
⛽️ 💡
You don’t have to be “far right” to dislike this move from the federal government.
bruh we on the same site?
Wait for it…accusations flying around claiming PDS.
Oh another political news from John Quintet… and one that platforms yet again conservatives with this time a Right wing fake non profit.
You should search what the Canadian Taxpayer foundation is… And yet, it’s presented as a perfectly legit authority on the question.
You can’t be serious… government shill. Don’t worry, your job will soon evaporate.
What? What exactly did Sylvain get wrong here?
What did he get right?
Thanks for rephrasing my question? I’m asking legitimately. I don’t know anything about the CTF or otherwise. But it does seem like this is a strange article for this website no?
Nah, just asked the right question.
The article was mostly about the behaviour of our PM. He’s traditionally been very calm and collected. An outburst like that is unusual for him. Maybe he’s not doing well under the recent pressure. Maybe it’s the separation. Who knows, but he seems much less in control of his presentation than he used to be. That outburst was the headline and gist of the article.
But, focus on who asked the question that triggered him. That’s what matters. Nothing to see here. The drone army comes out to distract and detract whenever PM Blackface stumbles.
We have never seen such incompetence in parliament, and those who voted for him should be ashamed. What was a once a proud and prosperous country has been driven into the ground by this buffoon, Mr Trudeau.
What a dramatic clickbait title.
The idea of Trudeau actually snapping at anything is kind of laughable, really, so thank you for that, at least.
1000 jobs and 5 billion in spending. Then there’s the Volkswagon factory that is costing 16 billion. Money clearly grows on trees for this government.
They and you are misrepresenting the cost and spending. No money is flowing to these companies from the feds. Most of these deals require the companies to do something to receive a tax credit (ie money they won’t pay, something Cons ask for all the time). The combined spending from these companies is over $50 billion.
Do you think that there is a major difference to the taxpayer between the following?
1) Keeping the amount of tax a company pays the same but giving them $X.
2) Not giving the company money directly but reducing the amount of tax that the company pays by $X.
Yes. Dramatically. Look up how compounding works.
Everyone making this a left / right dispute in the comments is out of their mind. This is not left or right, it is just misguided. At least half of the small businesses in Canada are on the verge of failing because costs and rent / property taxes have gotten to the point that we can’t cover our costs, and the government continues to facilitate growth of massive international companies for tiny amounts of virtue signaling jobs. F#$@k the car industry, and same with communications companies, the aluminum plants and airplane companies if they can’t function without these massive handouts, because this is basically funneling all the development in Canada into silos in small concentrated regions. During Trump’s reign of terror the Trudeau government fought like hell to protect a couple thousand aluminum jobs in Ontario and Quebec, all while literally tens of thousands of jobs in western Canada were trampled in lumber and resource extraction without any reaction, since they don’t have lobbyists in Ontario constantly hounding the feds. You’ve got a bunch of highly unionized workers in specific parts of Canada making over $150,000 a year, with the federal government out to protect their backs, while the rest of Canada stagnates. It’s like our governments are too scared to breakaway from these massive companies that control our economy. I can get a whole pack of lemons in Vancouver area at an independent Indian or Chinese grocer for $1.50, but then go to a city without independent grocers and it’s suddenly $2 for one lemon! We need to do more to support independent businesses here. Who is gonna build homes and do plumbing and electrical? Why would I want to work here in general if the cost of running a business is literally higher than the income?
It’s nice to see a few with actual common sense in these comments.
It’s disheartening to me at just how many are still buying what this government is selling and calling it candy.
The Liberals are giving away more “free” money than ever before to help the people they bounced out of the middle class with their unsustainable “Sunny Ways” fiscal and “Net Zero” policies slamming into the wall of economic reality.
Which will inevitably tax and hyperinflate more people out of the middle class, which will prompt the Liberals to give away even more “free” money, which will bounce even more people out of the middle class and onto the taxpayer funded government dependency plantation.
Any questions?
This is not free money from the feds. It’s a tax credit for 10% up to $2.5B. the Ontario PCs actually just straight up gave $2.5B so it sounds like you’re barking up the wrong tree for political purposes
Affordable Housing shortage.
Homeless Shelter Space shortage.
Doctor and Nurse shortage.
Now Canadians are forced to eat rotten food because of a Disposable Cash shortage caused by being hyper taxed and hyperinflated into poverty.
But no Weed Shop shortage.
Sunny ways my friend. Sunny ways.
The amount of damage Trudeau and his clown show have done is immeasurable. Our kids and grandkids and their grandkids will be paying for these failures.
Generational dependence on government was always their guiding principle. Too many shortsighted people ignored what that means in practice and bought into the idea that government can and should involve themselves into every part of their lives and the economy.
And when the next gov comes in and tries to pick up the pieces, they’ll be framed as cruel and uncaring because it’s going to mean reducing the handouts and trying to remove the gov from being everyone’s nanny.
The amount of damage Trudeau and his clown show have done is immeasurable. Our kids and grandkids and their grandkids will be paying for these failures.
Generational dependence on government was always their guiding principle. Too many shortsighted people ignored what that means in practice and bought into the idea that government can and should involve themselves into every part of their lives and the economy.
And when the next gov comes in and tries to pick up the pieces, they’ll be framed as cruel and uncaring because it’s going to mean reducing the handouts and trying to remove the gov from being everyone’s nanny.
The only good news from this announcement is that it is clear Trudeau is done and we will be rid of him soon.
Maybe. Judging by the comments here, there are a lot of self-lobotomize people still that will take any criticism of dear leader as being “far right”. No thought or consideration needed.
They call everyone far right because we basically don’t have a far right. They have no other boogeyman so they’re forced to label everyone as such.
Don’t conflate your own problems grasping reality with the rest of us mentioning facts that are easily verifiable.
At no point I mentioned nor emitted an opinion on the Prime minister.
No, of course… you’re an attack dog against opposition and common sense. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Start using your own brain and research what happened to the two catastrophic similar money grabs.
In case you don’t care, I do… because it’s MY MONEY.
LOL. What’s facts do you think you “emitted”?
You certainly emitted opinion about the right wing boogeyman. And helped demonstrate my point 🙂
Your point is about as factual and relevant as claiming the earth is flat.
Way to absolutely prove the point.
We’re paying more to serve our national debt than we are in healthcare. How anyone can claim that this government has done, will do, or is doing anything to benefit Canadians is truly intriguing to me. Caught up in more financial scams than the last 3 governments combined.
Sorry you want to see logic where there isn’t any. There is no logic to this government’s methods. They cannot math, and have proven it time and time again. They are not for the people and are here to virtue signal and get attention for themselves and their agendas, nothing more.
Sadly, many, especially on this site, buy into this alternate reality by the likes of It’s Me, fed by the far-right narrative since Trump’s election. And it seems it’s very likely Trump will be re-elected this year.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Gary advertises this site on Truth Social.
Most here are afflicted with TDS (Trudeau Derangement Syndrome), ardently championing a leader with Trump-like ideologies. Despite their education and privilege, they willingly ignore facts, perpetuating a twisted narrative.
Like many MAGA supporters, they would financially support a dictator such as Trump which has already exceeded $1 million against what they label as a witch hunt.
Furthermore, the far-right extremists on this site staunchly uphold their distorted views, rejecting truth and reason to advance their divisive agenda. Proving once again, even the articulate or educated can be both idiots and stupid.
You guys seem to go out of your way to prove me right.
It’s an interesting neurosis. Maybe psychosis.
Yeah we will be so much better with the mini Trump, he wont even last 4 years, lmao
Pierre Pothead will be absolutely NO different!
So let’s just continue with the economic stupidity of Trudeau? That’s your best answer? A condom could have solved your post.
Cutting every benefits to families and giving tax cut to the rich is your brilliant solution?
Good thing Doug will be gone soon too.
I don’t really see a tech angle or an Apple angle here. I’d prefer to keep politics out of these pages if possible
….or you might contemplate getting your head out of the sand and facing reality. Just a thought.
Rude. Maybe you should get checked for “Trudeau Derangement Syndrome” if it’s all you can think about. Just a thought.
Why? I don’t want to talk about dieting when at McDonalds, or my vacation at the homeless shelter? It’s perfectly reasonable to want this site, literally named after a product it purports to be focused on, to focus on technology.
“””Trudeau Snaps When Asked About $5 Billion Honda Deal for 1,000 Jobs””
Nothing to see here folks. Justin snaps when someone dares to disagree with him. Just ask JWR, Morneau etc….
JT is only trying to play all sides for fools and will find out soon enough how that only makes aggravation fester and anger grow. His call, he is the PM after all.
Consider this, far right usually complains about social welfare – well for ON at least, it’d be cheaper to support that than corporate welfare it seems. People could afford to live, but then we have boneheaded decisions of paying out the yang while corporations don’t have to pay their employees jack. How much you want to bet the board members will see most of those subsidies, a bonus here or there.
Couldn’t even feed our countrymen but continue to feed the rich.
And as for the 1000 jobs, how many domestic? They aren’t answering that either as we got blindsided by the other deals. So they use middle class $ to pay for jobs that aren’t for domestic citizens while the corporation profits off those subsidies while we the nation get nothing in return except EVs the population can’t afford because we already covered their cost of doing business here.
Why do they not understand it’s worse than saying NO, do business elsewhere.
There’s no winning at this point. If he looses the deal to the US because they offer more, then he’s a bad guy. If he outbids the US for a contract, then he’s carelessly spending money.
Nah. If any US state landed 1000 jobs (maybe) at a cost of $5B in concessions, no one would be crying foul. Even the most diehard union supporter would say “that doesn’t make any sense, mathematically”.
There is something he could do for the reporter. Resign
He’s got too big of an ego. All our politicians do. It’s part of the job description.
As much as I hate to say it, I think Canada and the USA needs to be assimilated by China.
How is this article related to my iPhone… while living in Canada?
It will be GREAT DEAL!!! I tell you. We are going to wisely invest our tax dollars & give huge breaks to giant corporations, who will approporiate more valuable farmland to build massive polluting factories. Since there are few workers to staff them we will spend even more tax dollars bringing foreign workers in who will compete for what little housing there is, clog up our schools and hospitals. Since people do not want to buy electric vehicles these plants could fail or we get forced into driving EVs that will bring even worse problems. Lastly if/when the factory closes guess who picks up the clean up bill? The Corporation? Wrong again. No worries the Trudeau regime is currently drafting a bill that will make what I just wrote subject to a penalty if anyone finds it insulting. That way nobody has to know how bad this deal really is. Remeber you will own less and be happy!
No more aid to Corporate Welfare Bums.
I agree as in no more aid to the big corporations