Federal and Ontario politicians have been tight-lipped about the amount of money the government is investing to secure a new electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing plant in Windsor, Ont., but a Toronto-area MP shared in a tweet that Ottawa’s contribution is $500 million.
During an announcement Wednesday for what is being called the “largest automotive investment in the history,” prominent politicians — including Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal ministers of transport and innovation — would not disclose the financial incentives that the government had offered to secure the $4.9-billion factory in Canada.
When asked for dollar amounts, Ford said, “I can’t divulge that. It would compromise some negotiations moving forward with other companies as well, but it’s a massive investment and its hundreds of millions of dollars.”
On Wednesday afternoon, MP for Toronto—Danforth Julie Dabrusin, who also attended the announcement in Windsor, said the federal government is contributing $500 million toward the project.
This tweet by Dabrusin was deleted Thursday. (Julie Dabrusin/Twitter)
“Today, on behalf of Minister [Jonathan Wilkinson], I joined Ministers [Francois-Philippe Champagne] and [Omar Alghabra] in Windsor to announce $500M in federal funding to support a historic investment by LGES and Stellantis for a total of $5B,” Dabrusin, who also serves as parliamentary secretary to the minister of natural resources, said on Twitter.
By mid-morning Thursday, the MP had deleted the tweet.
“This marks Canada’s largest-ever investment in the Canadian auto sector and will build electric vehicle (EV) batteries right here at home and create over 2,500 jobs,” said Dabrusin in a subsequent tweet.
The project is a joint-venture deal between automaker Stellantis and South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution, and is set to provide 2,500 new jobs to the region. It’s expected to be operational in 2024.
All levels of government have supported the project, including an incentive package from the City of Windsor that includes a land deal for the massive factory, said to be the size of 112 NHL hockey rinks.
A member of Champagne’s office speaking on background said the final investment figure from the federal government has not been finalized with the companies, which is why it has not been publicly confirmed.
The source said that in previous iterations of such deals, about a 10 per cent investment has been in the range.
Competition is high to secure an investment
On Wednesday afternoon, Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said on CBC’s Power and Politics he could also not release those details as the government is in final negotiations with the two companies in the highly competitive sector.
“With respect to the amount, we will be a strategic partner, we’re just in the final round of negotiation with the company, but I think you would appreciate, this is a highly competitive sector, so some of these terms are sensitive commercially,” Champagne told CBC’s Vassy Kapelos.
The government was in competition with a number of states in the U.S. and elsewhere in Europe to secure the factory, said Champagne.
WATCH | Champagne speaks on Power and Politics about the new plant:
Premier Ford: ‘This is the largest automotive investment in the history of our province’
1 day ago
Duration 9:21
Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne joins Power & Politics to discuss news of a new electric vehicle battery facility coming to Windsor, Ontario. 9:21
Flavio Volpe, president of the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association, said government spending in the auto sector on other projects, like the millions recently announced for a Honda plant upgrade in Ontario, range between 10 and 20 per cent.
He said the governments are likely working to secure other investments and don’t want to show their cards too soon.
“They have to disclose, and so I think they will in due time. But I think people should probably have in their minds that it’s the same quantum as the Honda investment last week, which was around 10 per cent for each level of government,” said Volpe.
Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, says governments will likely disclose their investment toward the new battery plant soon. (Chris Ensing/CBC)
“Frankly, that is what you need to do to to bid for these major league franchises, and we’ve seen over the years that that number has gone up to as high as 50 per cent in other places.”
Volpe said Canada would not have to go so far as to support 50 per cent of an investment project, but that a 10 to 20 per cent investment can be profitable for the expenditure.
“What we’ve said to people in government for years is a 10 or 20 per cent investment by government lends a 25 year investment by companies,” said Volpe. “And the payback on the tax base from the personal taxes that the employees pay and with the corporate taxes, it’s usually about a four or five year payback, and that’s not a bad return.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
