Clean Energy Canada | When building Canada’s EV battery supply chain, the sum is greater than the parts
September 13, 2023

OTTAWA— Joanna Kyriazis, director of public affairs at Clean Energy Canada, made the following statement in response to the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s recent report, Break-even Analysis of Production Subsidies for Stellantis-LGES and Volkswagen.

“Yesterday’s report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer looked at the payback period of the $28 billion in support the federal and Ontario governments recently committed to two of Canada’s first large-scale EV battery manufacturing plants.

“The report says the PBO used the same underlying resource to calculate its payback period as the federal government did, which was recent modelling and analysis carried out by Clean Energy Canada and the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing. But while our analysis took into account the spin-off benefits these types of anchor investments tend to spur in other parts of the battery supply chain—whether upstream cathode active material production or downstream EV assembly—the PBO considered only the revenues expected to be generated by the battery cell and module manufacturing facilities themselves. This narrow interpretation provides an incomplete picture of the economic benefits Canada could see as a result of these clean energy investments. It’s not just about a single cell manufacturing plant—it’s about a lot more. 

“Clean Energy Canada’s report was the result of robust analysis conducted over six to eight months in close consultation with industry experts. It found that Canada has the potential to build a domestic EV battery supply chain that could support up to 250,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2030 and add $48 billion to the Canadian economy annually.

“Many more investments have been announced in Canada’s battery supply chain since the report was released in September 2022, so if anything, the opportunity has only grown even bigger.

“As the U.S. moves quickly to invest in, and capture benefits from, a booming North American battery industry, Canadian government support has been essential to keep pace with our most important trade partner. The clean energy transition is the economic opportunity of a generation and, as such, is a deeply competitive one. Canada has many natural advantages, from abundant mineral resources to a highly skilled labour force, and yet success will only be rewarded to those countries that work for it.”

RESOURCES

Clean Energy Canada Report | Canada’s New Economic Engine

Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing Technical Report | Developing Canada’s Electric