'Seized the moment': Watershed year for EVs paving way for billions in new investment, Champagne says

financialpost.com:

It has been a busy year for Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne. He has several responsibilities, but building a new battery sector seemed to keep him the most occupied in 2023 as Canada inked multi-billion-dollar deals with battery and automakers Stellantis NV, LG Energy Solution Ltd., Volkswagen AG and Northvolt AB to build three battery plants.

In the case of Stellantis and LG, Champagne didn’t just need to ink a deal. He had to spend an extra two months improving it to match incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States to ensure the companies remained in Canada. Passed last year, the IRA encourages companies to set up factories in the U.S. by issuing financial support.

Critics of the deal say Canada should have waited until the late 2020s before announcing incentives worth more than $30 billion to these companies since there will be a lot more battery plants in the mix by then and the deal making could have been a lot less aggressive in nature. Champagne, though, called these deals a generational opportunity that some people may misunderstand.

Was he nervous about committing billions of dollars to an industry that’s still taking its baby steps in Canada? No, he said in a year-end interview wherein he also took the opportunity to send a message to junior miners looking to make deals with Chinese companies, something Canada discouraged in 2022.

FP:

François-Philippe Champagne (FPC): It’s like Canada won the Stanley Cup this year, to be honest. We have seized a generational opportunity: 2023 was Canada’s moment. If you ask me, this is even beyond my expectations, and I am a pretty ambitious guy. This is the year of Canada and for me, this was really a watershed moment in