VolkswagonMy hunch; there will be an indigenous partnership with Frontier’s Phase 1 and Volkswagon is knocking at the door; see below.
NEW YORK — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a number of U.S. jurisdictions outbid Canada in the recent race to secure Volkswagen's new battery plant.
But Canada prevailed, he says, because of its clean energy supply, educated workforce, critical minerals riches and investments in the middle class.
Trudeau made the admission in remarks today at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
The plant, to be built near St. Thomas, Ont., is drawing some criticism because Ottawa offered up to $13 billion worth of production subsidies to make the deal happen.
Trudeau says the economic and social benefits of the facility will vastly outweigh the cost because Volkswagen is committed to be a major employer in the hard-hit manufacturing community for decades.
It was part of his sales pitch to convince investors, business leaders and venture capitalists in New York and around the world that Canada has a firm grip on the future.
"I'll be honest: there were places in the United States that were putting up way, way more money than we put on the table," Trudeau said.
But Canada's clean energy supply, robust social services, environmental standards and mineral riches ultimately helped to win the day, he said.
"Volkswagen said, 'OK, we're showing up with a plant that's not going to be there for five years, or 10 years. It's going to be there for 50 years, maybe even more,'" Trudeau said.
"'We need to invest in a community that is going to be invested in itself and in that future.'"
The idea for the New York trip, which wraps up Friday, was to capitalize on the momentum that was generated by last month's visit to Ottawa by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The centrepiece of those meetings was a new Canada-U.S. strategy for the extraction, development and processing of critical minerals.
As the Canadian government works to develop that industry, democracies must work together to protect their values and economic interests in the face of rising authoritarianism, Trudeau said Friday.
It's important, he said, to build democratic values into decisions about where to source minerals, and it's not just about telling companies not to get them from countries such as China.
"We should simply commit to sourcing our critical minerals from places that ban forced labour, that have safety standards, that pay their workers a living wage, that have high environmental protections, that work in partnership with Indigenous Peoples."