Tesla Is Seeking ‘opportunities for industrial facility, mineral extraction’ in Ontario

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Tesla is looking at opportunities for industrial facility and mineral extraction in Ontario, according to a new lobbying filing last month. The company is looking to achieve greater control over its supply chain.

Tesla is seeking “opportunities for industrial facility, mineral extraction” in Ontario, according to new documents filed with the Ontario government, Electric Autonomy reported. The registry of lobbyists indicates the company is interested in gaining more control over its electric vehicle battery supply chain. Ontario is an important place to achieve this.

In the filing, Tesla said it is committed to: “Work to identify opportunities for industrial facility, mineral extraction and processing project permitting reforms…while working with government to identify incentives to further increase the attractiveness of Ontario.”

Electric Autonomy contacted Ontario's Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade about the filing and received the answer. “By reducing the cost of doing business by $8 billion annually, Ontario has seen unprecedented levels of investment into the province, including $25 billion in auto and EVs in the past two and a half years,” said Vanessa De Matteis, press secretary for minister of Economic Development, Victor Fedeli, in an emailed statement.

“While the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade does not discuss economic prospects publicly, our government continues to seek out opportunities to promote job growth and ensure Ontario remains a competitive jurisdiction.”

In August 2022, Tesla lobbied the Ontario government for “advanced manufacturing facilities.” Last September, the company hired a former battery mineral advisor to the Ontario government to be its new Critical Minerals & Supply Chain Policy Advisor. In addition, senior Ontario officials and Tesla representatives made several visits to each other. In just six months, there were 13 meetings between federal officials and Tesla lobbyists.

In the territory of Canada can be found deposits of critical materials for the production of batteries. However, the country is lagging in building up the refining and processing infrastructure to add value. As the electric vehicle industry took off, provincial and federal governments redoubled their efforts to bring the electric vehicle battery supply chain back to Ontario and Quebec.

© 2023, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.

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