OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the governments of Canada and Quebec to cut out the corporate welfare following today’s announcement that Northvolt will receive billions in special taxpayer treatment.

“It feels like every month Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finds a new multinational corporation to give our money to,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “How many billions of dollars are taxpayers going to shell out to fund Trudeau’s corporate welfare obsession?

“Taxpayers should be very worried when the Parliamentary Budget Officer is warning it will take decades to break even on similar corporate handouts.”

The Quebec government is giving Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt up to $2.9 billion. The federal government is adding another $1.34 billion in subsidies.

While taxpayers are struggling with high inflation and affordability, the company that got the corporate handout confirmed it’s likely unnecessary.

“Could this happen without any external subsidies? Probably yes,” said Northvolt Chief Operating Officer Paolo Cerruti.

“The government of Quebec has a terrible record of waste when it hands out corporate welfare and it needs to stop,” said Nicolas Gagnon, Quebec Director for the CTF. “Quebec is a proud province and we should be able to compete without needing to pay businesses to set up shop here.”

The PBO published a report showing government handouts to other battery manufacturers won’t break even for decades. 

“The break-even timeline for the $28.2 billion in production subsidies announced for Stellantis-LGES and Volkswagen is estimated to be 20 years, significantly longer than the government’s estimate of a payback within five years for Volkswagen,” the PBO said.