Goodyear spending $575M to expand Ontario plant, produce EV tires

NAPANEE, ONT. -

Goodyear Canada is planning to spend more than $575 million to expand and modernize an eastern Ontario plant to produce electric vehicle and all-terrain tires and make its processes more energy efficient.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford were on hand for an announcement Monday at the factory in Napanee, and the project is getting financial support from both levels of government.

Goodyear is set to receive up to $44.3 million from the federal Strategic Innovation Fund and $20 million through the provincial Invest Ontario.

Trudeau said Goodyear's investment is a vote of confidence for Canada's auto sector and its workers. He touted in particular electric vehicle battery plants that Canada has attracted in the past several years, including three in the works in Ontario.

"We chose to back our auto workers and invest in the future of the industry and the results, the results speak for themselves," he said.

"These global leaders have recognized all that Canada and Canadians have to offer: abundant clean energy and a commitment to serious climate action, access to critical minerals and other natural resources, stable and reliable democratic institutions, strong trade relationships spanning every corner of the globe, and, most importantly, the best workers in the world."

But not all electric vehicle manufacturing news has been positive lately, with Umicore announcing last month that it had halted spending on a battery materials plant not far from Goodyear's eastern Ontario facility, citing substantially scaled-back growth projections for the EV market.

And in April, Ford pushed back planned EV production at its plant in Oakville, Ont., by two years, only to announce in June it was switching production plans away from EVs to its Super Duty pickup trucks.

Trudeau on Monday defended the push to make Canada, and in particular Ontario, a leader in electric vehicles and the associated supply chain, including the billions of dollars in government subsidies that helped to attract the plants.

"This is a nascent technology, a nascent industry," he said. "There are going to be challenges along the way, but knowing that Canada has positioned itself as number one in the world in EV supply chains, according to Bloomberg, as the place to invest, has shown that we are making the right bet on the future."

Conservative labour critic Kyle Seeback criticized Trudeau's handling of the auto sector.

"He gave billions of taxpayer dollars to bring in foreign replacement workers, he has driven $460 billion in investment out of our country to the USA, and he has failed to stand up to the regime in Beijing to defend our industries against flooding our market with cheap EV's, steel, aluminum and other products," Seeback wrote in a statement.

The Liberal government just completed required consultations to impose tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and launched an additional consultation Friday that could expand that to additional industries.

Goodyear president and CEO Mark Stewart said the company's plans in Napanee include facility expansion, modernization, new state-of-the-art equipment and new technology, as well as 200 new highly skilled jobs by 2027.

"We really appreciate our very deep partnership with the federal, provincial and local municipalities, of course our amazing associates that make it happen every day here in Napanee, and their families here in the community," he said.

The project is also expected to get the plant to net-zero emissions by 2040.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2024.