Liberal and NDP MPs have voted against a Tory motion to investigate foreign hiring at electric vehicle (EV) plants set to receive billions of dollars in government subsidies.
“They are still seeing foreign workers employed over Canadian workers,” Mr. Williams told the committee. “For $15 billion Canadians should have been put front and centre.”
The motion was rejected by the NDP and the Liberals in a 6-5 vote, with Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull arguing the committee’s calendar was full and could revisit the issue in the fall instead.
NDP MP Brian Masse dismissed the premise of the motion saying, “I can’t support basically some type of fishing expedition.”
The federal government has promised over $50 billion in subsidies to create or expand EV production infrastructure in Canada.
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Canada’s Building Trades Union (CBTU) on April 26 petitioned cabinet to ensure the hiring of Canadians at the Windsor plant. “Stellantis and LG are persisting in using subcontractors who are employing international workers for tasks we’re equipped to perform,” said the petition, according to Blacklock’s. “Currently more than 100 local skilled tradespeople are available for work yet they’re being sidelined in favour of international workers. This is unacceptable.”
Honda Canada announced last week alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford that it will build four new manufacturing plants in Ontario, including an electric vehicle assembly plant and a standalone battery manufacturing plant at its current facilities in Alliston, Ont.
Both the federal and Ontario governments announced they would be subsidizing the automaker to the amount of $2.5 billion each in tax and other incentives.
CBTU also expressed concern over the project and called for a meeting with Honda to secure a memorandum of understanding to maximize the number of Canadian unionized workers who would be constructing the new project.
A majority of MPs on the Commons government operations committee yesterday also objected to a Conservative motion to scrutinize contracts awarded to all subsidized battery makers.
