Canada’s auto industry is experiencing a renaissance as it transitions from building gas-powered vehicles to ones that run on batteries, but some are raising the alarm over the protection of local jobs.
Southern Ontario has become a hub for foreign automakers that have invested tens of billions of dollars since 2020 to build up electric-vehicle battery plants, with help from the federal government in the form of tax credits and subsidies.
As the federal and provincial governments subsidize that growing industry, union leaders, federal Conservatives and the NDP are demanding assurances from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that he will make sure jobs are going to Canadians.
Earlier this month, Canada’s Building Trades Union called on Trudeau to intervene at the NextStar battery plant in Windsor, Ont., which is owned by Stellantis and LG Energy Solution.
The union said Canadians are being sidelined in favour of temporary foreign workers.
It said in a letter to Trudeau that 180 skilled workers in the region remain unemployed despite being available to perform work that has instead been assigned to newcomers.
It’s a “brazen displacement of workers” the April 10 letter reads, “by major international corporations thumbing their noses at both the government of Canada, taxpayers and our skilled trades workers.”
NextStar Energy and the federal government both say foreign workers account for just 72 jobs at the plant, and specialized equipment is being installed that Canadians will then be taught how to use.
Still, the union’s executive director Sean Strickland said those are tasks that Canadian workers can already handle.
“We have 1,600 Canadian workers on the job site today, and we hope to keep it that way during the next phase of this project, where the work will turn to equipment installation,” Strickland said in a statement.
“We remain able to provide the skilled labour necessary to perform this work.”
On Thursday, Trudeau was in Alliston, Ont., to announce the latest multi-billion dollar investment in electric vehicles.
Honda is set to build a battery plant next to its assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles as part of a $15-billion project.
Trudeau sidestepped a question about whether the agreement with Honda includes explicit protection for Canadian workers.
“Actually the investments we’re making, whether it’s with NextStar, or here with Honda Motor Co., it’s all about creating great jobs for Canadian workers, and that’s what is actually being delivered,” Trudeau said.
The company says 1,000 new jobs will be associated with the project.
But at this point, there have been no assurances that existing Honda workers in the community will be able to transition to the new jobs, said the national president of Unifor, Canada’s primary auto union.
“We just need to make sure we’re protecting workers in any way that we can,” said Lana Payne.
When an automaker transitions its existing operation to an EV plant, that can impact up to 30 per cent of jobs in assembly plants and the auto-parts sector, Payne said, which is why it’s important governments secure current workplace footprints.
Unifor has lobbied the federal and provincial governments to include protections for workers in their contracts with automakers that ensure income security, job security and the right to form a union.
Honda currently employees over 4,000 people in Alliston. They are non-unionized, but employees have held conversations around joining Unifor.
“For workers who don’t have the benefit of a union, it’s critically important that the government makes sure that those workers are protected through the transition period, working with employers to make sure they have those guarantees, particularly when government investments are being made,” Payne said.
The Conservatives have demanded to see contracts the federal government has made with automakers, saying Trudeau cannot be trusted to protect Canadian jobs.
“We have seen before where Justin Trudeau announces massive subsidies that are supposed to create Canadian jobs, only to see him turn around and let those jobs be filled by foreign replacement workers and then lie about it,” Sebastian Skamski, a spokesman for Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre, said in a statement.
“We can’t trust that his latest announcement of $5 billion in Canadian taxpayer money to another large multinational corporation will be any different.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has also called on the Liberal government to stop writing “blank cheques” without ironclad guarantees for unionized workers.
“There needs to be guarantees baked into any public dollar we spend, and should be tied to jobs and investments that benefit Canadians,” Singh said.
“It should not be that we just give a blank cheque to a company and say we hope that you hire Canadians.”
HALIFAX – The head of a committee monitoring the government’s response to the inquiry into the 2020 Nova Scotia mass killing says she’s pleased with progress made so far.
Myra Freeman was appointed chair three months ago to the independent committee monitoring how governments and police forces are implementing recommendations from the report into the shooting that killed 22 people.
The federal-provincial inquiry filed a 3,000-page report with 130 non-binding recommendations into such things as community safety and well-being, police reform and public mental health, access to firearms, and gender-based violence.
Freeman said today in an update briefing that she is satisfied that meaningful progress is being made by police and governments in many areas.
However, she didn’t give details or release any supporting documents, explaining that her group’s first annual report will come in November.
Freeman says the recommendations are complex and require a “huge amount” of co-ordination to implement them all.
The public inquiry’s final report, released in March 2023, offered a harsh critique of the RCMP’s actions in April 2020, when a man disguised as a Mountie and driving a replica RCMP cruiser fatally shot friends, neighbours and strangers during a 13-hour rampage through northern and central Nova Scotia.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 250 points in late-morning trading, led by strength in the base metal and technology sectors, while U.S. stock markets also charged higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 254.62 points at 23,847.22.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 432.77 points at 41,935.87. The S&P 500 index was up 96.38 points at 5,714.64, while the Nasdaq composite was up 486.12 points at 18,059.42.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.68 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was up 89 cents at US$70.77 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down a penny at US2.27 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$9.40 at US$2,608.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.33 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
