The Commons Industry committee has ordered Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne to produce documents relating to the agreement to pay Volkswagen Canada over $13 billion for a battery factory in St. Thomas, Ontario.. Francois-Philippe Champagne .Previously, the committee had asked Champagne to provide a list of incentives given to Volkswagen, which he did not comply with..READ MORE BEETLE MANIA: Liberals won’t disclose secret Volkswagen subsidies, worth up to $15 billion.“Liberals surely would not give away $14 billion in taxpayer money without a contract,” said Conservative MP Rick Perkins (South Shore-St. Margarets, NS). .The Industry committee last Monday adopted a motion ordering that Champagne “provide a copy of papers including the total cost of the Government of Canada investment and the number of projected jobs to be created.” .The deadline expires on Monday..“How many jobs does $14 billion buy?” asked MP Perkins (South Shore-St. Margarets, NS). .In a statement on Friday, Cabinet said “The plant, Volkswagen’s largest to date, will create up to 3,000 direct jobs,” the equivalent of $4.6 million per job..Cabinet said it will pay Volkswagen $13.2 billion “depending on production levels” to operate an electric car battery plant beginning in 2027..The Ontario government approved an additional $500 million in subsidies..READ MORE Trudeau gov’t gives Volkswagen $13 billion subsidy for battery plant.“It’s an investment in the future,” said Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North, MB), parliamentary secretary to the Government House leader.. Volkswagen ID4 charging .“This is an opportunity for Canada to enter into that dream world in a very real and tangible way.”.“Countries that develop green economies within their borders will be the countries that will win,” Liberal MP Andy Fillmore (Halifax, NS), parliamentary secretary for industry, told the Commons..“This is a historic investment for all Canadians.”.“This is a win for Canada,” said Fillmore..“It is a win for the world.”.“This investment by Volkswagen and by the federal government is a game-changer for the positioning of Canada as the world’s green supplier of choice,” said Fillmore..“It means that we are well on our way. There will be thousands of jobs created in the St. Thomas area. There will be thousands of knock-on jobs created in adjacent industries.”.According to the department of Industry, the $13.2 billion federal subsidy compares to $5.5 billion a year in loans, grants and concessions to all Canadian corporations by all federal departments and agencies..However, the Volkswagen subsidy, a postwar record for a single factory, is not the largest federal concession ever granted to a single corporation..Parliament in 1881 passed the Canadian Pacific Railway Act to give shareholders a $25 million cash subsidy — the equivalent of more than $700 million today — plus 25 million acres of free land, a 20-year monopoly on Prairie rail service and a promise it “shall be forever free from taxation” on its transcontinental line..The tax holiday lapsed in 1917 when a Royal Commission on Railways noted taxpayers had been “liberal in promoting railway building.” .Additional cash subsidies from 1881 to 1917 totalled the modern equivalent of $1.1 billion with tariff exemptions and easy-term loans.
