Invest WindsorEssex will receive a funding boost to support the local electric vehicle supply chain.
In an announcement on Wednesday morning, the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario announced that Invest WindsorEssex will receive a $200,000 government investment that will support participation of 120 local companies.
FedDev Ontario Minister, Filomena Tassi made the announcement alongside MP for Windsor-Tecumseh, Irek Kusmierczyk and the President and CEO of Invest WindsorEssex, Stephen MacKenzie.
With this investment, Invest WindsorEssex will help prepare 120 southern Ontario businesses for the growing EV market by developing and delivering eight new training workshops over the next two years.
This training will help to ensure that Canadian companies have the talent and knowledge in the EV sector.
MacKenzie says local companies having this training is vital.
“Traditionally, 85 per cent of economic growth and investment, and job creation comes from existing companies. And so we want to make sure that our amazing companies who have worked in this industry, some for generations, have the opportunity to realize success and business, and growth as we transition to the automobility space.”
MacKenzie adds that the training will be at no cost to interested companies.
“We don’t have to charge anything to get them this education. We’ll probably get a profile, ask for a profile on the companies so that our instructors can understand who’s coming in and they’ll be delivered. So, it’ll be very easy, and we’ll market it to make sure that companies that are interested are able to access it.”
Kusmierczyk says this shift to EV vehicles is a race.
“This program here that we’re investing in is going to make sure that our companies here locally get off the block as quickly as possible and go after those opportunities that they can compete. So it’s not just about helping local companies thrive in this new hyper-competitive world, not just survive, but thrive in this hyper-competitive world, and that’s what this investment is about.”
The first training session is expected to take place after the summer.
Training scheduling will be done within the next few months, with four to five hour long sessions taking place locally, across Ontario, and internationally as well.
Companies who are interested in taking part will need to register at zero cost.
This investment builds on the $7.5-million FedDev Ontario investment announced in May 2021 and a $5-million investment announced in 2019 for IWE to establish Canada’s first world-class automobility accelerator.