Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux was “wrong” in estimating that the federal government’s recent deal with Volkswagen to incentivize the German automaking giant to build an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Ontario will cost taxpayers over $16 billion, says Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Freeland spoke to reporters in Ottawa on June 14 just hours after the PBO released his “Fiscal Analysis of Canada’s Support for Volkswagen’s Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Plant,” in which Giroux estimated the federal government’s deal with Volkswagen will cost $2.5 billion more than the $13.8 billion Ottawa previously projected due to tax adjustments that weren’t accounted for.
