Some construction continues at Windsor EV battery plant site despite uncertainty

The bulk of construction at the Windsor electric-vehicle battery plant has been stalled, however, Stellantis confirms work on the cell production facility is ongoing.

According to LouAnn Gosselin, Stellantis’ head of communications in Canada, work on the module building, which makes up much of the project, has stopped.

The Stellantis and LG Energy Solution EV battery plant is set to produce two products — battery cells and module cells.

Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy says there were about 500 workers on site Tuesday.

“It’s misleading what people are saying, ‘the whole site shut down’ and everything else. It’s the module part of the whole entire build. So we have the cell part and then we have the module part and the module part is the part that’s shut down,” he said.

“Construction is still going. It’s not effecting our third shift, it’s not effecting our investment at this point.”

Cassidy says Unifor and its members continue to move forward.

“This is a little set back, but I’m telling you things are going to be okay,” he said.

Meanwhile, the federal government is suggesting they will uphold their end of the bargain with LG, but it’s the province of Ontario which is to blame for Stellantis halting production.

“We want to be fair with Stellantis we want to be fair with LG, we’ll provide something similar that we’ve done with Volkswagen,” said Industry Minister Francois-Phillippe Champagne.

But at the same time, we say to our provincial colleagues in Ontario to say, ‘pay your fair share’ and we’ll put that to bed and then we’ll move on to the next investment that we can attract in Canada.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters Monday the federal government needs to “step up” as they did for Volkswagen.

“We've signed a deal with Stellantis months ago, quite some time ago actually, on infrastructure - and we gave them the exact same amount as we gave Volkswagen,” he said.

Ford added they need the federal government to come to the table and show their support.

Champagne is currently in Seoul, Korea with the prime minister and says he hopes to speak with LG executives at a state dinner Tuesday night.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, however, says he has no plans yet for any kind of formal meeting with LG to try to resolve the dispute.  

- With files from CTV News