The federal and Ontario governments are set to make “an important automotive announcement” which is expected to be that Canada’s first lithium ion separator plant will be built in Port Colborne, Ont.
According to Asahi Kasei, this plant will cost nearly $1.6 billion and produce 700 square metres of a specially coated membrane used in lithium battery manufacturing annually. Asahi Kasei did not mention which municipality the plant would be coming to in its April announcement. Ontario is contributing $2.5 billion through direct help on capital costs and indirectly through covering the land servicing costs for the future facilities.The federal and Ontario governments have already put up a combined $28.2 billion in subsidies to attract battery plants from Volkswagen and Stellantis LG to St. Thomas and Windsor, respectively. This tactic was used to attract the plants to Canada instead of the United States, which included incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act.