LILLEY: Biden has a history of targeting Canada’s auto industry

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To the closest political observers, it should come as no surprise that US President Joe Biden is trying to shut down the Canadian auto industry once again. He tried it once before in 2009, shortly after being elected vice president under Barack Obama.

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In 2009, as governments around the world continued to react to the global financial meltdown, Biden and his allies in the United Auto Workers of America saw an opportunity to move jobs to the United States. If American taxpayers were going to bail out General Motors and Chrysler, then the jobs should be in America.

Only the combined efforts of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Prime Minister Dalton McGuinty, stepping forward with their own pot of rescue cash, stopped the entire shift in the auto industry outside of Canada. Now, as president, Biden has partnered with the UAW to try to get jobs out of Canada once again.

This time, Biden hopes to use the power of tax breaks to move auto manufacturing south.

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The Build Back Better Act, the budget legislation currently before the House of Representatives and endorsed by Democrats in Congress and the White House, calls for increased tax breaks for US-made electric vehicles. Currently, tax refunds from the US federal government are in excess of $ 7,500 per vehicle, but are projected to increase based on this bill to $ 12,500 per vehicle under the proper conditions.

One of those conditions is that the vehicle must be built with at least 50% parts made in the United States and that the vehicles “run on battery cells that are made in the United States.”

With Ontario in the running for at least one electric vehicle battery plant, Biden’s moves could affect not only that investment decision, but all future automotive investment decisions as the industry moves toward electricity.

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Will Ontario be considered for future battery plants? What about future parts or assembly plants? Will they move south so that the final product can qualify for the Biden tax break?

This comes at a time when it finally looked like Ontario’s auto industry might be preparing to rebound from what seemed like a downward spiral started by General Motors announcing the closure of its Oshawa plant in 2018.

A year ago, Prime Minister Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a joint investment of $ 295 million from each level of government to help Ford Motor Co. transition its Oakville plant to electric vehicle production. Six weeks later, both governments were present when GM announced a return to its historic roots in Oshawa.

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Not only is the auto industry a major employer across Canada, especially Ontario, it is one of the historic industries in the province. Automobile manufacturing occurred here alongside Michigan and has continued for more than a century.

On Tuesday, Ford placed a call with executives at Stellantis, formerly Chrysler, about its Windsor plant, which is scheduled to go down to shift early next year due to a global shortage of semiconductor chips. Ford said it wants to get the plant back up and running in three shifts as soon as possible.

Despite its promise of support and that Ontario has all the natural resources and technical and labor skills necessary to make electric batteries, Ontario’s auto industry could soon be a thing of the past or a shadow of its former glory if the administration Biden uses his budget to move production south.

We need the Trudeau administration, with its deep ties to the Democrats in Washington, to step up its diplomatic game to find a solution for Canada.

Without a change in legislation that recognizes the integrated nature of the North American auto industry, we will soon be saying goodbye to a vital sector of Canada’s economy.