The mining of critical minerals is essential to Canada’s growth in the electric vehicle sector, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford on the occasion of a “historic” and “generational” $15-billion investment by Honda Motor Co. in southern Ontario.
In formulating a strategy to establish secure a “start-to-finish” battery chain ecosystem, Trudeau said on April 25 that Canada has the abundant critical mineral supply that the rest of the world wants, the available skilled talent, and advanced manufacturing capacity to build the innovative economy of the future.
And compared to socially and environmentally dubious mining players like China, “our approach is much more responsible.”
Boosting Canadian critical mineral production means tapping into greenfield areas like the Ring of Fire in the James Bay region.
In the stalled decades-long government process to do that, Premier Doug Ford expressed confidence that a forthcoming deal with Aroland First Nation will help make a crucial next step in the construction of a north-south access road to the Far North mineral belt.
Honda is spending $15 billion on four manufacturing plants in Ontario, including building an electric vehicle battery plant next to its existing Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which is being retooled to produce electrical vehicles.
Once operational in 2028, the new assembly plant will produce up to 240,000 vehicles per year. One thousand new direct jobs are expected to be created and an estimated 28,000 to 30,000 in economic spinoff jobs in the decades to come.
Queen’s Park and Ottawa are delivering to the Japanese carmaker a hefty incentive package worth a combined $5 billion in federal clean-tech manufacturing tax credits and provincial assistance covering site service costs.
This is the third electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Ontario that the province and the federal government are assisting following significant investment dollars for the Stellantis LG plant in Windsor and a Volkwagen plant in St. Thomas.
While Queen’s Park and Ottawa are spending billions in southern Ontario, comparatively little has been announced in upstream investment in Northern Ontario to support the mines and mid-level processing facilities that will feed this ecosystem.
Four lithium companies with mineable deposits in northwestern Ontario are looking to government for help with construction of lithium conversion plants in Thunder Bay, Red Rock and elsewhere in Northern Ontario.
In Temiskaming, Toronto’s Electra Battery Materials needs US$60 million to finish construction of its nickel, cobalt and battery recycling plant, a project that’s been on hold for a year. The company is considering setting up a second refinery in Becancour, Que.
Honda did say it’s vertically integrated Ontario supply chain will include some processing capability with a new precursor material processing facility formed through a joint venture partnership with POSCO Future M Co., Ltd., a South Korean battery materials company, along with a separator facility through a joint venture partnership with Asahi Kasei Corp., a Japanese chemical company.
Whether any Northern Ontario communities are in the running for these plants remains to be seen. Honda said further details will be rolled out over the next six months.
Promoting a domestic mines-to-EV assembly plant supply chain was clearly on the minds of Trudeau and Ford, even if the path for government cooperation in the Ring of Fire remains murky to get there.
The two leaders fielded a media question that both governments might be cutting regulatory corners to expedite mine production in Canada.
Trudeau responded that Canada is widely regarded as a responsible and reliable supply chain partner when it comes to upholding labour standards, working with Indigenous people, and doing what’s right on the environmental front to offer a clean product to the world.
“We will continue to invest in the mining sector in Canada. We’ve extraordinary mining expertise, but we will do that responsibly in partnership with Indigenous people, unions and protection of the environment.”
Ford pushed back against a question that First Nation communities in the area of the Ring of Fire are against development because they have not been properly consulted.
The premier disputed that, calling Marten Falls and Webequie, the two First Nation communities closest to the Ring of Fire, great partners that are leading the environmental assessment processes on their respective sections of the road.
“They’ve been an incredible, incredible partner and we look forward to getting shovels in the ground.”
Ford revealed an announcement is coming soon on an access road deal with Aroland First Nation that might clear the path for the road.
Ford mentioned he’s had “great conversations” with the Aroland leadership and that the province is close to signing an agreement that would give the community control of the first 80 kilometres of the road. Aroland is situated near the southern terminus of the road where it would connect with the provincial highway system at Nakina.
Driving a road to the Ring of Fire, Ford said, would create jobs and opportunities in the region, provide better access to health care, lessen the cost of food and supplies, and extend broadband and hydro power to the communities.
“This is going to change their lives.”
Mine development in the Ring of Fire has been largely stalled since the discovery of nickel and chromite in 2007-’08.
The latest hurdle to development has been the imposition of a federal regional assessment by Ottawa in 2020. The fledgling socioeconomic process has been rejigged in the past year to involve more Indigenous oversight.
In the meantime, the Ontario government has launched a legal challenge against the legitimacy of the entire federal Impact Assessment Act.
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.
