TORONTO — Premier Doug Ford opened Sanofi’s $925 million flu-vaccine plant in North York on Wednesday, a project underwritten by $415 million from Ottawa and a $55 million provincial loan, with production not due until 2027.The 263,000-square-foot Charles Best building at the Connaught Campus will handle manufacturing, formulation, filling and packaging of Fluzone High-Dose for adults 65 and older. Queen’s Park and the company say the site will add about 300 jobs. It is qualified for the ribbon-cutting, but shots are slated for early 2027, pending regulatory approval, for the 2027-28 flu season.Off his script, Ford told the company Ontario would “buy the vaccines at a very discounted rate.” The line drew a laugh from the audience.Sanofi’s release puts the federal share at $415 million, while Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told the room it was actually “$450 million.” The province’s 2021 announcement described Ontario’s $55 million as a performance-based loan, so either way close to half the $925 million sticker is public money for a plant that will not ship new doses for another flu season..Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Ontario already distributes more than 4 million publicly funded flu doses each respiratory season, including more than 1.5 million for seniors, “many of which are now made right here.” Site lead Kate Winchester said influenza causes about 15,000 hospitalizations and 3,500 deaths a year in Canada, most of them among seniors. The new line is meant to cut those numbers and, if needed, pivot to pandemic flu production.Joly said the project maintains and creates 1,200 jobs, 300 of them at the Sanofi building, plus 200 co-op positions. Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli put Sanofi’s three recent Ontario projects at more than $2 billion and 650 jobs — the Premier’s Office release still says 550. Fedeli said Ontario was not on Sanofi’s original shortlist, and that a text from Ford’s office sent him to their headquarters in France where he was told “You’re not on the list, so you've got a lot of work to do.” He called it the Ford government’s first billion-dollar deal.Mayor Olivia Chow said the city cut red tape and “controlled” development around the 52-acre campus, the same file that produced a minister’s zoning order this year limiting nearby rental height on Steeles Ave. W. Sanofi’s 2024 plant on the same grounds — an $800 million pediatric and adult vaccine site — already drew $50 million from Ontario and $20 million from Ottawa. A May expansion of Sanofi’s Toronto AI centre added a further conditional grant of up to $5 million from Invest Ontario.
