Honda employees work along the vehicle assembly line at a Honda vehicle plant in Alliston, Ont., on April 25.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The union representing Canada’s auto workers sees the push to build up the supply chain for electric vehicles as key to a renaissance for its members, as car and truck assembly gets retooled for a new era.
Massive investments announced by automakers and their suppliers wagering on a future wave of electrification have breathed new life into manufacturing, says Angelo DiCaro, the director of research for Unifor, the country’s largest private-sector union.
“So it means everything for 20,000 Unifor members and it’s going to mean everything for 10,000-plus members at Toyota and Honda. It’s very significant what’s happening here,” Mr. DiCaro said.
The transition to electric also brings big risks for the work force, however. One is the monumental task of retraining and redeploying workers who have assembled parts for cars and trucks powered by tried-and-true internal-combustion engines.
“We’ve had well over a dozen auto parts plants in Unifor alone closed in the last couple of years,” Mr. DiCaro said. Not all of that is because of the shift to EVs, but the change is quickening, he added.
Labour is key to the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) supply chain that several industries are trying to string together, and its voice is one that Accelerate, the ZEV industry association, is taking to heart as it kicks off an effort Wednesday to solicit ideas for turning the country into an EV force.
The group, made up of companies and organizations in mining, batteries, fuel cells, vehicle manufacturing, infrastructure, the public sector, research and labour, said it is looking for opinions from across the country on how to build up capacity for raw materials production and manufacturing in an integrated North American market.
Tens of billions of dollars are being spent on new plants to manufacture batteries and their components in Ontario and Quebec by General Motors Corp. GM-N, Ford Motor Co. F-N, Stellantis NV STLA-N, Honda Motor Co. HMC-N, Volkswagen AG VWAGY, Northvolt AB and others, all with significant taxpayer subsidies. That all provides a foothold for the industry, said Matthew Fortier, the chief executive officer of Accelerate.
“But we have to figure out how we’re really going to maximize the opportunity for Canada. That means developing approaches that benefit more segments of the supply chain and put more Canadians and Canadian firms in positions to succeed,” Mr. Fortier said.
In addition to unions, the group is seeking input from companies, First Nations, think tanks, academics and the public, with the aim of making the industry more national in scope, it said.
It is looking for ideas on how to approach trade issues. That includes putting the industry front and centre as Canada, the U.S. and Mexico revisit the 2020 North American trade deal. Accelerate is seeking opinions on enacting a carbon border adjustment for Canada and the U.S.; the concept of applying sustainability standards for imports; ensuring more North American content in supply chains; and bolstering production of critical minerals.
The survey coincides with rising concern about China’s dominance in the sector. Three weeks ago, the Biden administration hiked tariffs on a number of EV-related items. It said it would quadruple duties on batteries to more than 100 per cent and double them on semi-conductors to 50 per cent.
“If we really want to be decoupling our supply chain from China, and clearly our U.S. friends want that, then we have to figure out how we’re going to source more North American materials throughout the supply chain,” Mr. Fortier said.
The group has already surveyed top executives of automakers and suppliers, who urged industry and government to find ways to integrate with the U.S. market and fill gaps in the value chain, such as the midstream processing of critical minerals that go into cathodes and anodes for batteries. China is currently the major player in this area, and Canada has little capacity.
Chris Burns, the CEO of Bedford, N.S.-based Novonix Group, said it is crucial that policies can survive election cycles. The company makes battery-cell testing gear in Canada and produces synthetic graphite anode material in the U.S.
China has built up its battery industry over more than two decades, without having to deal with shifts in political winds, Mr. Burns said.
“It’s because they’ve had a very consistent set of five-year plans where batteries and energy storage have always been a critical focus,” he said.
“So we need a set of strategies now and we need to ensure that those strategies are not abandoned with any changes in potential power. We need to understand where we want the country to be, not in 2025 or 2026, but where we want it to be by 2030 or 2035.”