LILLEY: Biden is no friend of Canada and Trudeau has to say that

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A proposed electric vehicle battery plant, one of the largest industrial investments in Canadian history, is in jeopardy because of Joe Biden. Work at the Stellantis-LG battery plant in Windsor, Ontario halted on Monday, with the company saying in a statement that the Trudeau government had not supplied what was needed to build the plant.

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“To date, the Canadian government has not honored its commitments, so Stellantis and LG Energy Solution will begin implementing their contingency plans.” the company said in a statement.

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It would be easy to blame Trudeau for this mess, but it would also be lazy to do so. All of this is being pushed by Joe Biden, America’s most protectionist President.

Biden’s decision to offer huge subsidies to companies like Stellantis or Volkswagen forces Trudeau to act. Of course, he could say no to all of them, but that would mean saying goodbye to the Canadian auto industry and other industries that Biden bribed to move south.

The deal with Stellantis was announced just over a year ago, in early March 2022. The deal was delayed due to President Biden’s protectionist measures included in his 2021 budget, which gave consumers massive tax breaks for buying cars, but only if the cars and most of their parts were made in America.

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With Biden going too far on this front and facing opposition from trading partners like Canada and within his own party, these measures were dropped. However, that was not the end of his protectionist measures, Biden does not believe in free and fair trade with his neighbors, he believes in screwing us.

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A few months after the federal and provincial governments announced the Stellantis deal, the Biden administration announced its oddly named Inflation Reduction Act. On paper, the plan envisages up to 500 billion dollars With new spending and tax breaks, much of this has been aimed at offering subsidies to businesses.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the true cost will be high more than $1.2 trillion.

It was the Inflation Reduction Act that prompted the Trudeau administration to offer up to $13 billion in subsidies, tax breaks, and production subsidies rather than losing the project to the states. Stellantis recognized this and demanded the same treatment as its industry competitor.

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The Trudeau government could be criticized for not having a firm deal with Stellantis before the IRA became an issue, but it’s likely the company would have simply demanded the same treatment as Volkswagen anyway. All of this is again due to Biden’s ill-conceived economic policies, buoyed by his protectionist agenda.

Purists might argue that subsidies shouldn’t exist, and both the political left and political right have fought against corporate welfare, which is certainly the case. However, the country and the economy are not ruled by purists, and those who make decisions must grapple with this reality.

Biden’s subsidies are heinous, a gross distortion of a free-flowing market. Had it not been for his bribes, Stellantis and Volkswagen would have easily picked the locations they would have ended up in, due to factors like a reliable, skilled workforce and a robust and clean power system — things many U.S. states couldn’t offer.

The Trudeau administration had the option of offering similar bribes or missing out on the kind of investment that comes only every few decades, if not longer.

It is likely that Stellantis and the federal government will come to an agreement in the coming days. The price will hurt, it will be repulsive, but if you want to vent your anger, start shouting at the White House and at Joe Biden.

Biden is not Canada’s friend and it’s about time Canadians, and especially our Prime Minister, realized that.