EDITORIAL: Please, sir, can we have our money back?

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In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping 25% tariffs on the global auto sector, Stellantis announced a two-week “pause” at its plant in Windsor.

That leaves 4,000 Canadian workers wondering what the future holds. While Canada has announced retaliatory tariffs on automobiles coming into this country from the U.S., the writing’s on the wall. It’s not a pretty message.

So, what happened to the billions of dollars in subsidies this country gave to the EV battery industry, especially Stellantis?

Where are they now and can we have them back?

In a 2023 report, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux projected that the combined revenue generated from three companies — Stellantis, Volkswagen and Northvolt — would only match the production subsidies by 2043, assuming a production start of 2024.

“We estimate the total cost of government support for EV battery manufacturing by Northvolt, Volkswagen and Stellantis-LGES to be $43.6 billion over 2022-23 to 2032-33, which is $5.8 billion higher than the $37.7 billion in announced costs,” Giroux said. The $5.8 billion represents foregone corporate income tax revenues for the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments combined. He said there was a break-even timeline of 23 years for $15 billion in production subsidies to Stellantis.

Asked about those deals recently, Industry Minister Anita Anand insisted she has assurances car companies are staying in this country.

“We have agreements in place with auto manufacturers. That’s our Strategic Investment Fund and we will continue to ensure that we come forward to maintain a healthy and vibrant auto manufacturing sector,” Anand told CTV News this week.

The evidence says otherwise. It looks like we’ve been played for suckers.

The federal and Ontario governments have poured billions into the auto industry to support jobs. We got a big, fat goose egg in return.

It was utterly predictable that billions of dollars in auto industry subsidies — to companies whose head offices are elsewhere — would end in tears. They’ve shown zero loyalty to skilled workers in this country, taken our tax dollars and decamped the minute it suited them.

Those billions would have been better spent reaching our commitment to NATO of 2% of gross domestic product for defence spending. We should have fired up homegrown shipbuilding and armaments industries instead of frittering it away on foreign companies with no loyalty to Canada.