At that time, the jobs of the 100,000 men and women who worked in the auto sector were at risk. Our government was not going to simply watch as our auto manufacturing sector, an industry that Ontario had an historic competitive advantage, was eliminated as global automakers shifted to electric vehicle production. We worked to land $45 billion in transformative auto and electric vehicle investments in just the last four years. That is more than any U.S. state has landed in that same period. In April, we welcomed Honda’s $15 billion investment to build an end-to-end electric vehicle supply chain in Ontario, the largest automotive investment in the province’s history. As part of this investment, Honda will establish four new manufacturing plants in Ontario, including a new stand-alone battery manufacturing plant in Alliston, which will create over 1,000 good-paying direct jobs. Through two joint venture partnerships, Honda will also build a separator plant with Japan’s Asahi Kasei in Port Colborne, and a cathode active material and precursor processing plant with Korea’s POSCO.These investments will create thousands of additional direct and indirect jobs across Ontario. In Windsor, Stellantis and LG Energy Solution invested $5 billion to build an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant, creating 2,500 goodpaying local jobs for the region. In October 2024, the plant began module production, a pivotal landmark for their operations, with full production expected to be underway by late 2025. In St. Thomas, Volkswagen is investing $7 billion to build their first overseas electric vehicle battery plant, which will create 3,000 good-paying direct jobs, and up to 30,000 indirect jobs across the supply chain. Through these strategic investments, tens of thousands of good-paying jobs are being created across the province. Ontario’s success is not limited to auto manufacturing. Since 2018, Ontario has attracted $5 billion in life sciences investments that have helped to create over 5,000 good-paying jobs. That includes companies like Sanofi, who opened their $800 million Toronto vaccine manufacturing facility in May. The 200,000 square foot state-ofthe-art facility will employ 200 people and produce life-saving vaccines for domestic and global markets. OmniaBio, a leading biotechnology company, built a $580 million cell and gene therapy manufacturing facility in Hamilton, which led to the creation of 250 new jobs. The facility will help advance innovative medicine with the potential to cure many forms of cancer, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. AstraZeneca,one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, invested $500 million to advance their research on cures for cancer and rare diseases in Mississauga. Their investment created 500 new, scientific and research jobs. 23 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 03 MINISTER VIC FEDELI - MINISTER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
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