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OGGO Committee Meeting

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Minutes of Proceedings

44th Parliament, 1st Session
Meeting 96
Thursday, December 14, 2023, 3:35 p.m. to 5:47 p.m.
Televised
Presiding
Kelly McCauley, Chair (Conservative)

• Laila Goodridge for Kelly Block (Conservative)
• Brian Masse for Gord Johns (NDP)
• Rick Perkins for Stephanie Kusie (Conservative)
• Marcus Powlowski for Jenica Atwin (Liberal)
• Churence Rogers for Parm Bains (Liberal)
Library of Parliament
• Olivier Leblanc-Laurendeau, Analyst
• Ryan van den Berg, Analyst
The committee proceeded to the consideration of matters related to committee business.

Motion

Rick Perkins moved, — That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(a):

the Government of Canada be ordered to produce unredacted copies of:

(a) any contract, memorandum of understanding, or other agreement between any minister, department, agency or Crown corporation of the government and:

(i) related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery facility in Windsor, Ontario:

aa) Stellantis N.V., LG Energy Solutions, Ltd.,

bb) NextStar Energy Inc.

cc) or Volta Energy Solutions Canada Inc.;

(ii) related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery facility in St. Thomas, Ontario:

aa) Volkswagen Group,

bb) Volkswagen AG,

cc) Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. or PowerCo SE;

(iii) related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery facility in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Quebec:

aa) Northvolt AB,

bb) Northvolt North America,

cc) Northvolt Batteries North America Inc. or Cubery, Inc.,

(iv) related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery materials production plant in Bécancour, Quebec:

aa) Ford Motor Company,

bb) Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited,

cc) EcoProBM Co., Ltd.,

dd) EcoPro Innovation Co., Ltd.,

ee) EcoPro Global,

ff) EcoPro Co., Ltd.,

gg) ECOPRO,

hh) Eco CAM Canada Inc.,

ii) EcoPro CAM Canada General Partner Inc.,

jj) SK On Co.,

kk) SK ie technology Co., Ltd.,

ll) SK Inc.,

mm) SK Innovation Co., Ltd.,

nn) SK Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd.,

oo) Sunlake Co., Ltd. or

pp) EcoPro CAM Canada, LP;

(v) related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery materials production plant in Loyalist Township, Ontario:

aa) Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials Canada Inc.,

bb) Umicore SA/NV or

cc) Umicore Canada Inc.,

(b) all Labour Market Impact Assessments, including the applications for them, prepared in relation to the construction of an electric vehicle battery facility in Windsor, Ontario;

and that all documents:

  1. include all provisions related to the hiring or use of foreign workers and concerning language requirements and language of work, and that these clauses be released unconditionally;
  2. shall be deposited unredacted with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel within three weeks of the adoption of this motion;
  3. be submitted with proposed redactions for commercially sensitive information;
  4. following the review by the Parliamentary Law Clerk, all contracts, redacted for commercially sensitive information, shall be published on the committee’s website.

Debate arose thereon.

Motion

Brian Masse moved, — That the committee proceed to resume debate on the motion moved by Brian Masse on Monday, December 4, 2023.

The question was put on the motion and it was agreed to on the following recorded division:

YEAS: Majid Jowhari, Irek Kusmierczyk, Brian Masse, Marcus Powlowski, Churence Rogers, Charles Sousa — 6;

NAYS: Kelly Block, Garnett Genuis, Rick Perkins, Julie Vignola — 4.

At 3:49 p.m., the sitting was suspended.

At 4:02 p.m., the sitting resumed.

The committee resumed consideration of the motion of Brian Masse moved on Monday, December 4, 2023, which read as follows:

That, an order do issue for the production of copies of any contract, memorandum of understanding, or any other agreement between the ministers and departments directly related to the implementation of the contract agreements including, but not limited to, all provisions relating to the hiring or use of foreign workers and concerning language requirements and language of work, and

(a) Stellantis N.V., LG Energy Solutions, Ltd., NextStar Energy Inc. or Volta Energy Solutions Canada Inc., related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery facility in Windsor, Ontario;

(b) the Volkswagen Group, Volkswagen AG, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. or PowerCo SE, related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery facility in St. Thomas, Ontario;

(c) Northvolt AB, Northvolt North America, Northvolt Batteries North America Inc. or Cubery, Inc., related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery facility in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Quebec;

(d) Ford Motor Company, Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited, EcoProBM Co., Ltd., EcoPro Innovation Co., Ltd., EcoPro Global, EcoPro Co., Ltd., ECOPRO, Eco CAM Canada Inc., EcoPro CAM Canada General Partner Inc., SK On Co., SK ie technology Co., Ltd., SK Inc., SK Innovation Co., Ltd., SK Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd., Sunlake Co., Ltd. or EcoPro CAM Canada, LP, related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery materials production plant in Bécancour, Quebec; and

(e) Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials Canada Inc., Umicore SA/NV or Umicore Canada Inc., related to the construction of an electric vehicle battery materials production plan in Loyalist Township, Ontario;

and an order do issue for copies of all Labour Market Impact Assessments, including the applications for them, prepared in relation to the construction of an electric vehicle battery facility in Windsor, Ontario, provided that when these documents are received by the clerk;

new (f) the departments and agencies tasked with gathering these documents be redacted according to the Access to Information Acts with the exception that all companies must fully disclose and make publicly available to correct any misinformation the following:

(i) the number of foreign workers who will be building the plants, involved in equipment installation, technology transfer, training, and operations,

(ii) the number of Canadian temporary/construction jobs to be created and how many permanent production positions are to be create as part of the contract guarantees,

(iii) The steps that will be taken to prioritize the employment of Canadians for building the plants and equipment installation,

(iv) that redacted versions of these documents shall be deposited with the Clerk of the Committee within one three weeks, in both official languages,

(v) That information related to the above specific areas not available in the contract be provided by the above mentioned companies to the committee in writing;

(g) the committee invite the CEOs of Stellantis N.V., LG Energy Solutions, Ltd., NextStar Energy Inc. to answer questions;

(h) the committee call on the government to immediately continue to work with all the companies mentioned in the motion to develop training and job opportunities for Canadian workers for construction, to equipment installation/operation, technology transfer, production; and

(i) The committee submit an access to information request to ask the Information Commissioner to complete a third party review of the redactions to ensure a complete process and report back to the Committee for an in-camera meeting.

and of the amendment of Garnett Genuis moved on Monday, December 4, 2023, which read as follows:

That the motion be amended by adding the words “, and upon receipt immediately post on it’s website” after the words “for the production of”; by deleting the words “and agencies tasked with gathering these documents be redacted according to the Access to Information Acts with the exception that all companies must” and the words “to correct any misinformation” in paragraph (f); by deleting the words “that redacted versions of” in subparagraph (f)(iv); and by deleting paragraph (i).

The debate continued.

Subamendment

Rick Perkins moved, — That the motion be amended by deleting the word “new” before the letter “f” and by deleting the strikethrough before the word “immediately”.

RULING BY THE CHAIR

The Chair ruled the proposed subamendment inadmissible as it sought to amend the main motion.

Whereupon, Garnett Genuis appealed the decision of the Chair.

The question: "Shall the decision of the Chair be sustained?" was put and the decision was sustained on the following recorded division:

YEAS: Kelly Block, Majid Jowhari, Irek Kusmierczyk, Brian Masse, Marcus Powlowski, Churence Rogers, Charles Sousa, Julie Vignola — 8;

NAYS: Garnett Genuis, Rick Perkins — 2.

Debate resumed on the amendment of Garnett Genuis.

Motion

Charles Sousa moved, — That the committee do now adjourn.

The question was put on the motion and it was agreed to on the following recorded division:

YEAS: Parm Bains, Majid Jowhari, Irek Kusmierczyk, Brian Masse, Marcus Powlowski, Charles Sousa — 6;

NAYS: Kelly Block, Garnett Genuis, Rick Perkins, Julie Vignola — 4.

At 5:47 p.m., the committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.



Aimée Belmore
Clerk of the committee