A spokesperson for Canada’s minister of employment says they have not seen “reasonable justification” from NextStar for the use of temporary workers from South Korea, as the news sparks backlash among politicians who want to see jobs go to Canadians because of the massive subsidies the EV battery plant received.
The NextStar EV battery factory, a partnership between Stellantis and LG Energy Solution, received about $15 billion in subsidies from the federal and provincial governments.
Windsor’s police chief met with the South Korean ambassador last week ahead of the arrival of the workers next year. According to a social media post from the police service, about 1,600 South Korean workers are coming to Windsor for the project.
NextStar CEO Danis Lee in a statement that equipment installation at the facility required the workers.
“The equipment installation phase of the project requires additional temporary specialized global supplier staff who have proprietary knowledge and specialized expertise that is critical to the successful construction and launch of Canada’s first large-scale battery manufacturing facility.”
The company said it was “fully committed” to hiring more than 2,500 Canadians and 2,300 local tradespeople for the construction and equipment installation.
A spokesperson for Randy Boissonnault, minister of employment, workforce development and official languages, said they expect “all businesses operating in Canada to use and benefit from the skilled workers in this country.”
“We have not yet seen a reasonable justification for needing to bring in large numbers of foreign workers and would ask NextStar to prioritize Canadian talent,” said Farrah Kerkadi, press secretary to the minister.
Kerkadi said a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) has been submitted and approved for one staff member.
“We will continue to closely monitor any further requests for Temporary Foreign Workers from NextStar.”
LMIA applications are made to the government to demonstrate the employer needs international labour when the domestic labour market is insufficient.
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre raised the issue in a news conference on Monday, calling for an inquiry into how many of the jobs will go to temporary foreign workers.
Conservative leader wants to see inquiry over battery plant hiring
Featured VideoConservative leader Pierre Poilievre speaks about against a plan to bring South Korean workers to Canada to help build the NextStar electric battery plant in Windsor, Ont.
“And now we learn that the $15-billion grant to the Stellantis plant will fund mostly jobs for non Canadians — not immigrants, we love jobs for immigrants — jobs for people who are not Canadian citizens and will not be Canadian citizens,” he said.
“They will come here, get a taxpayer-funded paycheque and take it back to their country.”
Over the summer, NextStar began hiring for the first 130 jobs at the facility, including for roles in HR, communications and finance as well as engineers.
On Monday, Unifor national president Lana Payne said reports on the matter raised “serious flags” for the union, which represents workers at Stellantis’ Windsor Assembly Plant.
“We believe the shift to electric vehicles must be led by good jobs, with union contracts, for workers in Canada,” Payne said. “Workers should not be subject to exploitative hiring programs, like the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, that was significantly expanded under the Harper Conservatives but also endorsed by consecutive federal governments, Payne said.
But, she said, clarifying statements from the company have “alleviated some of our union’s immediate concerns.”
“To be clear, our union will closely monitor the hiring process to ensure Canadian workers are first to benefit from this historic investment in the auto sector and that NextStar fulfils its stated commitment to good jobs in Canada.”
Windsor MP says it’s ‘shocking’ to learn of NextStar plans to hire temporary foreign workers
Featured VideoNDP MP Brian Masse, who represents Windsor West, says he wants to see Canadian workers build the upcoming EV battery plants in Windsor, Ont., and elsewhere.
In a press conference Monday afternoon, NDP MP Brian Masse (Windsor West) said the news was “shocking.”
“At no point in time did I ever expect … that we wouldn’t have Windsorites or people from Essex County or people from all over Ontario and other parts of Canada, building the facilities and the cars and the parts and … of course the batteries … especially given the high degree of subsidies that are taking place,” Masse said.
Crews work at the Windsor electric vehicle battery plant in a May 2023 file photo. (Samantha Craggs/CBC)
During question period on Monday, Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk (Windsor-Tecumseh) spoke about the Canadian jobs the project will bring and condemned Poilievre for his comments.
“I am proud that it was this Liberal government that delivered the battery plant for Windsor, including 2,500 jobs,” he said.
“We will continue to work with unions, will continue to work with Stellantis to make sure that local Canadian workers are prioritized … We believe in Canadian workers. We believe in electric vehicles. We believe in climate change. Why is the Conservative leader so against the battery plant, so against Canadian workers and is completely empty on climate change?”
On Friday, NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky (Windsor West) wrote to Premier Doug Ford and provincial labour minister David Piccini noting “significant concern that NextStar and potentially many others in the EV battery supply chain will be relying on temporary foreign workers rather than local workers to build and operate the facility.”
Foreign workers temporarily expected in battery electric sector: Auto forecaster
Joe McCabe is the president and CEO of Auto Forecast Solutions. He says that the end result of the NextStar facility is more employment for local workers — but news of South Korean workers coming to NextStar is “100 per cent” what he expected.
“This is what’s going to happen with every partnership, especially in the electrification space with a foreign entity, and I think it’s got to be sort of the pill that needs to be swallowed for a short amount of time,” McCabe said.
“Anywhere you’re going to partnership with a foreign entity, you’re going to have representation from that foreign entity … at least for the kickoff, especially in a battery electric field.”
Calls for an all-Canadian project from top to bottom are “short-sighted,” he said, especially as the plant works to get up and running.
“I think you’ve got to bring the people that know the technology and are skilled and it’s their backgrounds, their wheelhouse that come in, set the stage, make sure everything is … running smoothly and then hand the keys off,” he said.
“I think Canada should be very excited about the investment. It should be seen as an absolute win, especially in this space, especially in the North America market … I think there should be less about the short-term impact of who’s involved with its success and more about the long-term viability on the Canadian economy and Canadian labour.”
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.
