Automotive News Canada - November 2020 - v2 - 9

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duplications " in their efforts,
said Fedeli. The federal and
Ontario governments developed a strong working relationship, a fact that might
have been impossible to imagine just a year or two earlier but would prove critical to
getting the Ford Oakville deal
done.

NEW ALLIANCES

The Oct. 8 press conference that shocked the Canadian auto
industry: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, flanked by Unifor
President Jerry Dias, left, and federal Economic Development
Minister Navdeep Bains, right, announces Ottawa's $290-million
funding contribution toward Ford's $1.8-billion investment in EV
production in Oakville, Ont. The Ontario government followed
moments later with a similar announcement. P H O T O : U N I F O R

in 2019 began offering a rebate
of up to $5,000 on eligible electric vehicles and long-range
plug-in hybrids, and has invested in charging infrastructure
projects throughout the country.
But securing EV production
at a Canadian assembly plant
- and the thousands of direct
and spin-off jobs that come
with it - had proven elusive
for the country. Toyota and
Fiat Chrysler have built hybrid
variants of vehicles produced
in Canada, but EV production
had gone elsewhere globally,
including the United States and
Mexico.
The Canadian government
was looking to change that and
was signaling to Ford that it
would put its money where its
mouth is.
" At the end of it, the government wants to be a meaningful partner - a true partner
- as we talk about investment
moving forward, " Bains told
Automotive News Canada.
A request to interview
Stoneley was denied by Ford.
In a statement, Ford Canada
said the company " worked collaboratively " with Unifor and
both levels of government to
secure the Oakville investment,
though it did not respond to
specific questions about how
that came to be.
" There are three key elements required to attract automotive investments: competitive labour costs, fair trade
agreements and government
incentives, " the company said.
Despite multiple requests to
Ford, no further comment was
provided for this story.

GOVERNORS' MEETING
Meanwhile, the Ontario
government was starting discussions of its own, according

This is exactly the
kind of investment
we've been looking
for for years.
VIC FEDELI

Ontario minister of economic
development, job creation
and trade

to Fedeli. In February, he and
Ontario Premier Doug Ford
were in Washington, D.C., to
attend the National Governors
Association's winter meeting.
While in the United States,
Ontario officials met with Ford
executives for a discussion
about Ontario's auto industry
and what the government could
do to help the company find
new Canada-based suppliers
to meet rising regional content
requirements under the new
United States-Mexico-Canada
trade agreement, Fedeli said.
That conversation and those
that followed helped to get
the ball rolling with Ford, as
Premier Ford and other officials would sell the automaker on the benefits of investing
in Ontario, including a highly skilled labour force and the
province's recent moves to cut
red tape, he said.
" The premier has always
said if you've got a great
investment in the province of
Ontario, come and talk to us
about it. We need to know what
your plans are, " Fedeli said.

Trudeau and Doug Ford,
after all, sit on opposite sides
of the political aisle. Trudeau
made no secret of his distaste for Ford's politics in the
2019 federal election, warning
Canadian voters that a vote
for the federal Conservatives
would be a vote for the Ontario
premier's agenda. Ford, meanwhile, leveled attacks against
the Liberal policies of Trudeau
and former Ontario Premier
Kathleen Wynne during the
2018 provincial election campaign.
But there has been little
sign of friction between the
two since the pandemic began,
even as real policy differences
remain. Indeed, Ford recently praised Chrystia Freeland,
the deputy prime minister and
federal finance minister, as
" amazing " and " incredible. "
She has returned the compliment, calling him a friend and
likening him to a " therapist "
with whom she could discuss
the challenges posed by the
pandemic.

NAVDEEP BAINS

Federal economic
development minister
That unlikely relationship
between the Trudeau and Ford
governments would set the
stage for both parties landing
on the same page when it came
to securing an EV investment
from Ford Motor. The development was especially noteworthy considering the premier
ran on a platform calling for an
end to what he called " corporate welfare. "
One of his first moves in
office was to kill the province's carbon tax, thus ending
Ontario's EV subsidy program.
(Revenue from the carbon tax
funded the province's EV subsidies.)
The pandemic " created
a different environment, an
environment of cooperation
and necessity, " Unifor's Dias
said. " It's almost like the big,
bureaucratic walls are tumbling as it relates to getting
things done.
" When you're dealing with
government, a tortoise will
move faster. But when it comes
to this ... things are moving
much quicker than they ever
have. "

'ACE IN THE HOLE'

PANDEMIC STRIKES
Just a few weeks after those
talks, however, the COVID-19
pandemic struck Canada and
the rest of the globe. It led to
an unprecedented two-month
shutdown of all automotive
production on the continent as
automakers worked to figure
out how to safely resume operations amid economic uncertainty and unknown consumer
demand.
An industry that was prepared for a small drop in
annual new-vehicle sales was
staring at an unprecedented
collapse in the market. And
everything from automakers'
product plans to their investment decisions was suddenly
up in the air.
For governments, the focus
immediately shifted to the dual
public health and economic
crises. COVID-19 cases began
to spike in Canada in March,
leading to shutdowns and stayat-home orders nationwide in
an effort to curb the spread of
the virus.
During the spring, the federal and Ontario governments
were in close contact with
each other on their respective responses, ensuring that
there were " no gaps and no

When it comes
to 'green', we're here
and we're ready.

According to a federal
government official,
discussions to bring Ford
EV production to Canada
accelerated when newly
minted CEO Jim Farley
became involved. F I L E P H O T O

At the beginning of the pandemic, Ottawa remained in
close contact with automakers
and suppliers, enlisting them
to build ventilators, masks and
other equipment needed to
combat the pandemic. Those
conversations also allowed
Bains and others in the federal
government to continue pitching Ontario to Ford as a place
to invest in EV production.
" Minister Bains reiterated to [Stoneley] that, 'When it
comes to 'green', we're here
and we're ready, " the federal
official said.
" That was sort of continuing to drop the breadcrumbs,

so to speak, to see what could
happen. "
In June, Automotive News
Canada reported that Ford
would not build the next-generation Edge crossover at the
Oakville plant, leaving it without a production mandate
beyond 2023. That came as a
surprise to Dias, who said he
quickly reached out to Ford to
learn more about its product
plans. He said the company's
reply was that all of its products and platforms were " up
for debate. "
" Coming out of 2016 bargaining, we were expecting
the next-generation Edge, "
said Dias. He said knowing it
wouldn't be built at Oakville
beyond 2023 was Unifor's " ace
in the hole " during negotiations because it allowed the
union to " pivot quickly " to a
new strategy.

GAMBLING ON EVs
Unifor began to pursue EV
production mandates from the
Detroit Three automakers. The
union in June laid out its proposals for how to rebuild the
Canadian economy post-pandemic, which included a call
for a national auto strategy
built around EV sales and production.
Dias acknowledged the
plans were a " gamble, " considering Canada had been shut out
of EV investments and that the
supply chain might not exist to
support such a move.
But the union doubled down
on it. Dias said he began to talk
in the summer with Ford executives including then-CEO Jim
Hackett and COO Jim Farley,
who would later be named
Hackett's successor as global
head of the company.
" Nobody had confirmed a
[battery-electric vehicle] in the
summer of 2020 or even the
beginning of the fall, but things
really started to fall into place
when we got to the bargaining
table " in September, Dias said.
The unified message from
the federal and provincial governments helped, he said.
After news broke that Oakville
was losing the Edge, Dias said
he urged Bains and his provincial counterparts to collab-

SEE THE EV PAGE 26

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who ran a campaign against what he termed " corporate welfare, " got
behind funding the switchover in Oakville to build EVs - to the tune of $295 million - because
it represented investment in the province. Also of note were vastly improved relations with the
federal government, which got Ottawa and Ontario on the same page of deal. P H O T O : B L O O M B E R G

Automotive News Canada - November 2020 - v2

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