The Windsor region was boldly thrust into the future of an electrified auto industry Wednesday with the announcement that Stellantis and LG Energy Solution will build a $5 billion automobile battery plant on the city’s east side that will directly employ 2,500 people.
Canada’s first giga factory — producing at least one million watts of power — will cover 4.5 million square feet, making it slightly larger than Stellantis’s Windsor Assembly Plant, and is the largest investment in the history of the Canadian auto industry.
The plant will be located on 220 acres (88 hectares) at the corner of EC Row Avenue and Banwell Road and extends south up to the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks.
“We’re going to be manufacturing in the Windsor region hundreds of thousands of batteries for the whole North American ecosystem for Stellantis – this is huge,” said federal minister of innovation, science and industry Francois-Philippe Champagne.
“With this type of investment, you know they’re going to be here for decades to come.
This investment is similar to going from the horse-and-buggy era to internal combustion engines
“The best thing is this morning I was having breakfast with the folks from LG and we’re already talking about an expansion. They’re already thinking, what more can we do?”
In addition to the 2,500 direct jobs, it’s expected the spinoff jobs in the supply chain will be four to seven times that amount.
The magnitude of the announcement could be measured in the number and significance of the collection of local, provincial and federal leaders, as well as business and community representatives in attendance.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had planned to attend before being called away to a NATO meeting in Brussels, also sent a recorded message calling the plant an investment in the future of the country.
With the capacity to produce 45 gigawatts annually, the plant would be the largest of the 13 battery plants announced to begin production in North America by 2025.
“Attracting this multi-billion-dollar investment will secure Ontario’s place as a North American hub for building the cars and batteries of the future,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said.
“As we secure game-changing investments, we’re also connecting resources, industries and workers in northern Ontario with the manufacturing might of southern Ontario to build up home-grown supply chains.
“Every region of Ontario will benefit with thousands of jobs being created and a stronger economy that works for everyone.”
Both the province and federal governments have committed hundreds of millions of dollars of incentives to land the plant.
Those figures weren’t released Wednesday for competitive reasons at the request of the companies.
Stellantis Chief Operating Officer for North America Mark Stewart said the plant would supply the company’s assembly plants across Canada and the U.S.
He expects construction to begin this summer with the first products being available in mid-2024. The plant will reach full operational capacity in 2025.
“It (Windsor) will supply 50 per cent of our (North American) volume,” said Stewart, who added the location of the company’s second battery plant in the U.S. will be announced shortly.
“There will be room for expansion. As we did our site selection, we made sure it was future proofed as well.”
Stewart said the company’s familiarity with the community and being home to Canada’s largest auto cluster were significant factors in Windsor being selected.
“This is one of the most storied areas of the company,” Stewart said.
“We have families in this community that are multigenerational. We feel putting the business here for our new joint venture is the right thing to do.
“Proximity is very good as well. From a logistics flow, it makes lots of sense.”
LG Energy Solution’s head of external affairs and government relations Denise Gray credited the aggressive pursuit of the plant by all levels of government for the region’s success.
It’s LG’s first major manufacturing plant in Canada.
“Windsor has offered an amazing amount of capability from financial, from workforce to a spirit of really wanting to get it done that really attracted LG Energy Solutions to select Windsor,” Gray said.
The announcement secures a key pillar in the Windsor region’s economic development strategy to fully exploit the auto industry’s electrification.
“It’s a five-year overnight success story,” said Invest WindsorEssex CEO Stephen MacKenzie, whose organization began putting the pieces in place in 2017 to transform the region into Canada’s automobility capital.
“Everyone in our local ecosystem played an important role. This region has landed a foundational piece for its future.”
The city’s role was to assemble the land for the site, which wasn’t initially on the market. There’s one residential lot the city is still negotiating to acquire.
The land acquisition is expected to cost $40 million to $50 million.
The other parcels were owned by Solcz Group Inc., Windsor Utilities Commission, CS Wind Canada Inc., Pointe East Windsor Ltd and a related numbered company. The city already owned four pieces of the property puzzle.
Council unanimously approved the land acquisition plans in an in-camera meeting on Monday.
The city will also offer tax breaks under its Community Improvement Plans that will see the site taxed at current agricultural rates for the first 20 years and will chip in about $8 million for mostly site-related preparations. One site improvement is moving an open drain that crosses the middle of the property.
“This investment is similar to going from the horse-and-buggy era to internal combustion engines,” said Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens.
“It’s that big. It’s transformational.”
The speed at which this deal evolved reflects the pace of the electric revolution consuming the auto industry.
The companies first contacted Invest WindsorEssex on Feb. 11, 2021, less than a month after Stellantis was formed by the merger of PSA Group and Fiat FCA. By early January 2022 Stellantis, the world’s fourth largest automaker, informed the city it was favouring locating in the area over competition from other Ontario municipalities and U.S. states.
“For a deal this size, this has moved very rapidly,” said Invest WindsorEssex’s director of business attraction Joe Goncalves, who spearheaded the organization’s pursuit of a battery plant.
“We had to make the sale of the area to the companies first, then the government incentives came into play.”
The companies began serious interaction with city officials only days after Stellantis announced its intention to build two North American battery plants during its EV Day on July 8, 2021.
Stellantis will oversee construction of the plant while LG Energy Solutions will handle its operations.
Goncalves said representatives from the companies visited the area four times between July 2021 and the end of October.
He added a big plus for Windsor was having the infrastructure, such as sewer capacity and wastewater management, already in place at the site and a reliable source of clean energy.
Among the key infrastructure improvements being added are Ontario Hydro’s new transmission line to the area and Enbridge Gas upgrading its delivery capacity. Those improvements are also vital to the region’s burgeoning greenhouse industry.
“What we’ve learned in this is you have to have all the pieces in place before these companies come calling,” MacKenzie said.
“We invested in experts, did the research on what successful jurisdictions had done and had the necessary data ready.
“When we got the lead on this one from the federal development agency, we were able to send a complete package to the company within 12 hours.”
It was also made quite clear that Wednesday’s announcement is only the beginning of more positive news for southwestern Ontario.
Champagne said he’s already focusing on securing companies to build the foundation for an entirely new segment of the domestic automotive supply chain.
“LG is looking to expand enormously in North America,” Gray said. “We feel these are awesome opportunities for investment.
“We’re hoping to continue to develop supply chains and the closer we can get it to where we are the better.”
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:DOL)
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:TD)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
After a long day at a work event in July, Kathryn Kozody was relieved when she spotted a car with a lit-up taxi sign.
She thought it was odd when the driver told her she’d have to pay her fare with a debit card. Still, a tired Kozody hopped in the car.
“I was like, ‘Fine, it’s kind of weird, but let’s go home,'” said Kozody, who lives in Calgary.
Nothing else seemed off — until the next day when she discovered that almost $2,000 was missing from her bank account. On top of that, her debit card had someone else’s name on it.
Kozody concluded that the taxi driver was a fraudster who, during the debit card transaction, recorded her PIN, stole her card and handed her back a fake.
“I started freaking out,” she said. “It’s terrifying when they have your debit card.”
It took Kozody about two weeks to get her money back from her bank, and she’s still rattled by the experience.
“It really felt like an invasion of privacy and a violation to be a victim of this scam,” she said. “I really don’t want it to happen to anybody else.”
The taxi scam isn’t new; Toronto and Montreal have been seeing it for years. But the crime is becoming more widespread.
This summer, police in Calgary, Edmonton and at least five cities in southern Ontario, including Kingston and Ottawa, posted warnings online that they had received multiple reports of the scam.
Police and the Canadian Taxi Association say the fraudsters have a helping hand: with the click of a button, they can purchase a generic — but official looking — taxi roof sign on e-commerce sites like Amazon.
The taxi association has asked Amazon, by far Canada’s most popular online shopping site, to stop making the roof signs so easily available.
“They do have a moral responsibility to at least sell the signs to individuals that are properly licensed,” said association president Marc André Way.
However, the U.S.-based company continues to sell the product to all customers.
“These lights are legal to sell in Canada,” Amazon told CBC News in an email.
The taxi scam has several variations but typically ends the same way: the victim pays with a debit card, then the scammer secretly steals it and hands the victim a similar but fake card. Shortly thereafter, money disappears from the victim’s account.
Ron Hansen, deputy chief of police in Sarnia, Ont., said his department received 12 reports of the scam in July, with one victim losing $9,900.
Toronto police report that since June 2023 the department has received 919 reports of the taxi scam, totalling $1.7 million in losses.
The numbers are “eye-popping,” said Toronto police detective David Coffey.
“When they do get a victim, they are quick to go right into the bank accounts. They’re quick to empty them out.”
Jessica Chin King of Toronto said just 15 minutes after a recent cab ride, she got a suspicious activity alert from her bank. Turns out, $600 had been withdrawn from her account.
“I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that just happened.’ I was in shock,” said Chin King, whose bank later reimbursed the cash.
She said she too was fooled by the taxi sign atop the car.
“I was in the car with somebody who wasn’t a taxi driver. Anything could have happened,” she said. “I was thankful that it was only my bank [account] that was compromised.”
CBC News bought a taxi sign from Amazon for $35. It has a magnetic strip on the bottom, so it easily sticks to the top of a car.
To power the light, an attached wire can be run through the driver’s window and plugged into the car’s auxiliary power outlet, also known as the cigarette lighter outlet.
The taxi association says licensed taxi drivers typically get their roof signs from speciality suppliers, and they are hardwired to the car — not powered via the cigarette lighter.
“When you see that … it’s obvious that it’s not a legitimate taxi,” said Way, the association president.
Last month, Way sent Amazon a letter on behalf of the Canadian Taxi Association, asking it to stop selling the product.
“This is not a safe, practical way to distribute the trusted ‘Taxi’ signs,” he wrote.
But Amazon told Way — and CBC News — the signs will remain on its site, because the company isn’t breaking any rules.
“It’s going to be quite difficult, I think, for anyone to stop Amazon from selling a product that is perfectly legal to sell,” said Toronto criminal lawyer, Daniel Goldbloom. “It’s true that these taxi signs can be used to commit scams, but kitchen knives can be used to commit murder — and we don’t stop retailers from selling those.”
But Way isn’t giving up hope.
He says the taxi association also plans to ask other online retailers, such as Temu and eBay, to stop selling the taxi signs and will lobby provincial governments for legislation that regulates the sale of the product.
However, Coffey said he believes the best way to fight the taxi scam is to educate people about it.
“Never, never give another person control of your debit card,” the detective said.
Victims Chin King and Kozody also want to spread the word.
“The more people know, the less likely it is to happen again to somebody else,” Kozody said.
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