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How will Honda’s $15-Billion investment affect Windsor-Essex · Kvetch & Release

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  Flavio Volpe joins me. He was there yesterday at the announcement. You put
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  out a tweet with Flavio that said, Hey, ten years ago, who
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  would have cared that much about cars? But take a look now? Yeah,
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  yeah, thanks John. And you know what, listen, You're listeners,
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  especially down there, are going to know what I'm feeling on this right
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  now. There's so many people are on the car bandwagon now, and I
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  love it. We've got a whole army out there now. Everybody's saying let's
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  go get these investments. But we're still listen to the same old stupid arguments
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  about how what's the cost per job? Well, I don't know. There
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  was an announcement for two point four billion dollars for AI last week. Nobody
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  bother to ask what the cost per job on AIS. They're still in the
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  commentary class, a whole bunch of people who do have a platform, who
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  go out and criticized. They criticized the industry when it was down. I
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  remembered that you know nothing like taking shots at people when their futures are are
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  looking bleak. And now as the industry has turned around based on our workforce
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  and our supplier capabilities. We're still having these silly arguments. Drives me nuts,
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  But you know what, nice to put up the winds and yesterday was
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  the biggest investment in automotive history in North America. And it picked Ontario not
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  because we were nice, because we know what the how we're doing well.
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  As you were saying, the chattering classes, the commenting classes, we heard
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  from one specifically, Andrew Coin was saying that when it comes to you know,
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  the total EV subsidies, we're looking at having to spend five million dollars
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  per job. Yeah, can you can you explain what umbrage you take with
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  that statement on what it actually means. I've heard that so many times I
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  should just usually just say whatever. An automotive plant like windsor Assembly makes three
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  hundred thousand cars a year. They sell those cars for thirty five thousand dollars
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  a year. Though I don't know that you can get a minivents thirty five
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  thousand, but let's just use a round number. That's ten billion dollars of
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  activity a year between payroll taxes and corporate taxes and HSD generated for every one
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  of those vehicles that gets on the cannon. That's over two billion dollars in
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  tax a year, I said to Andrew Coyn, and I said to everybody
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  else who decided to decide to rain in our conflicts yesterday, saying the denominator
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  isn't the jobs you don't do? Fifteen billion divided by the jobs you do?
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  Fifteen billion divided by the two billion dollars in activity tax activity every year.
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  Oh, by the way, this is four plans. So you know,
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  by the time that we shake this out, it's probably four billion dollars
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  worth of tax activity year. How may comes this four going to fifteen?
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  That's the number. And you know, look, when the Raptors won the
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  NBA Finals here three million people showed up for the parade here in Toronto,
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  lights every single man. I'm in child in Toronto, and I'll tell you
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  what. I looked around, and I said, you don't want a whole
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  bunch of you were not on the bandwagon. You couldn't have cared less.
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  You show up for the winds. But there was always an Andrew Coin or
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  somebody else is sitting on the outside. I said, you guys are gonna
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  lose next year. Well maybe we will, maybe we will, but you
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  know what There's thousands of people who are going to win for twenty thirty years
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  because of it, and I'm here for them. Well, and that's what
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  this is about, is the you know, the long term investment here.
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  And I had said before when we saw the investment in Windsor with the next
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  our energy battery plant, what do I care about subsidies when they're actually pouring
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  into our backyard. Now people might be saying, but John, this is
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  not in our backyard. These are most likely going to be are the big
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  ones is gonna be going into Alliston, Ontario where the thirty six gigawat hour
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  battery plant is gonna be built, as well as the new production facility.
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  But what might this deal actually have to say for Windsor in Essex County.
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  You know, this is my favorite part. There. I've got, we've
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  got, you've got naysayers and Windsor. And I turn around and say to
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  people that plant is going to be up and running next year. All those
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  suppliers, everybody who learned how to put up that plant, how to supply
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  that plant, is going to be bidding up the highway at Saint Thomas with
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  the only resumes that say, we know how to do this here and then
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  one year later for starter production in Alliston. There's going to be a whole
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  bunch of skilled work, a whole bunch of major suppliers in the building phase,
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  but also in whatever materials, whether they're raw or finished, in that
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  ev supply chain. That got their first customer down in Windsor, and you
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  know it's got another customer in Saint Thomas, another customer in Alliston, and
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  you know, I don't forget that there's another big customer called Nurse Wols in
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  Montreal. First mover advantages is always good in any business, but especially in
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  capital intensive business like this. So we've seen some big investments Honda, Volkswagen,
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  the next Star plants here. Is there anything more that you think might
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  be coming? Yeah, definitely, definitely. We Team Canada is talking to
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  several more. You know, there's a question of how much can you accommodate.
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  I think we all know that while these are amazing opportunities, you know
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  you've got to aggregate a few thousand people in one work site, and so
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  where are those people are gonna come from? And it's a question of structure.
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  We landed the st Lantists next on investment and the Volkswagen investment based on
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  those IRA matching production subsidies. We landed Honda based on capital money on the
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  setup or tax credits on the setup. Let's go out and see if we
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  can't pull Toyota in. Let's go out and see whether we could pull General
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  Owners in. You know, General Owners making electric motors or is transferring to
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  electric motors, and Saint Catherines. They've got delivery vehicles electric ones in Ingersoll,
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  but they're still making pickup trucks popular ones in Oshawa. I think when
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  General Motors electrifies Oshawa, they're going to need a battery plant. Let's go
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  and get them. I know that we're talking to a bunch. I would
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  be surprised if we didn't land another one this year, maybe two. Well,
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  you know, let's hope so fingers crossed that the Team Canada approach can
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  continue. It's great to be seeing our progressive conservative premier here in Ontario as
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  well as our liberal Prime minister able to come together on some certain files,
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  and this is, of course one of them. And we'll come back to
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  you to talk to you more about anything that breaks in the future. Flavia,
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  You're you're the car guy that I go to all the time. John,
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  I'll come on any time with you. I'll bring my baseball bat if
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  I need to. Sometimes we'll cover it in a silk sheet if we have
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  to. Sounds good. Flavia Volpe is the press in the Automotive Arts Manufacturers
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  Association of Canada. Thank you so much.