Committee Votes to Review Contract, Question Minister, in Confidential Meeting About $13B Volkswagen Subsidy

Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne leaves after a media availability on legislation to modernize the Investment Canada Act, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Dec. 7, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

A House of Commons committee has unanimously supported a motion to confidentially review the contract for the government’s multi-billion subsidy promised to Volkswagen Canada to build a battery plant in Ontario. The review will also include an appearance by Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne at the closed meeting.

Conservative MP Rick Perkins introduced the motion to the Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology on April 24 calling for a one-meeting study on Ottawa’s decision to spend $13.8 billion in subsidies on a new Volkswagen electric vehicle (EV) battery cell factory in St. Thomas, Ontario, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Perkins’s motion called for the federal Industry Department to send the committee an unredacted copy of its contract with Volkswagen prior to the meeting and also for the committee to invite Champagne to testify on the matter for two hours.

Champagne’s appearance was among a number of amendments to the motion that were proposed by Liberal MP Andy Fillmore, to which all committee members agreed.

The amended motion said both Champagne and other Industry Department officials will be invited to appear before the committee in a confidential meeting that can only be attended by “committee members and support staff” required for its proceeding.

The motion also said that “no personal, mobile, electronic, or recording devices of any kind [will] be permitted in the room during that meeting.”

It added that committee members will have limited access to the Volkswagen contract 48 hours before the meeting and that they will only be permitted to review the document under the committee clerk’s supervision in a room without any phones, cameras, or recording devices.

MPs will also not be allowed to leave the room with any notes taken while viewing the document.

“It’s about protecting the integrity of the contracts,” Filmore said of the amendments.

No MPs on the committee debated the amendments.

During the closed meeting, MPs will be given “numbered paper copies” of the Volkswagen contract that they must return to the committee clerk at the meeting’s conclusion.

The clerk will then be required to destroy the copies.

While the opposition has heavily criticized the federal government’s expensive deal with Volkswagen, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that it will “build the strong economy of the future.”

“We had to put money on the table to show Volkswagen we were serious about wanting them to come here and to be partners in building this incredible opportunity for Canadian workers,” Trudeau said on April 21.

The prime minister added at the time that other countries around the world, including the United States, offered Volkswagen “an awful lot of money” for the project with the automaker.

“Everyone wanted this,” he said. “So yes, we put up a lot of money—money that’s going to come back in investments in economic activity very quickly.”

Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.