Windsor’s Automotive Addiction

Yesterday, Mark Carney announced Canada’s new auto strategy: a plan that doubles down on the EV sector with subsidies while quietly abandoning EV sale targets in favor of emission standards.

Today, the other shoe dropped. Stellantis is divesting & selling its 49% stake in the NextStar EV battery plant to LG Energy Solution.

Windsor only knows one move: doubling down on the automotive basket. We are shoving every single egg we have into a sector that is increasingly volatile, and the blowback could be historic.

Mayor Dilkens famously tore up his reelection speech when Oshawa’s plant shuttered, declaring then that Windsor desperately needed to diversify. That was a decade ago. Since then? Silence. We haven’t even begun the conversation, let alone the work of diversification.

Sure, diversification is happening on its own, to a degree. NextStar’s pivot from EV batteries to stationary energy storage (ESS) is a massive course correction, but it’s also a flashing neon sign that our ‘all-in’ bet on automotive was never sustainable. The ‘shining light’ meant to safeguard Windsor’s future flickered the moment government policy shifted and market demand cooled. We caught a lucky break with the ESS transition, but luck isn’t a long-term economic strategy. If we don’t diversify intentionally, our luck is eventually going to run out.

We’ve allowed ourselves to be sedated by the temporary hum of construction: the bridge, the battery plant, the upcoming megahospital. These are vital, sure, but they are spinoffs, not a foundation.

Windsor is in a precarious place.

We are the frontline of a North American Border War, and right now, we’re just watching metaphorical soldiers advancing towards us. Carney has the right idea on paper, but without immediate, ruthless execution, we’re just waiting for the next shoe to drop.

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