Today EV and automotive factories rely predominantly on automation and robotics, not workers. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau attends a news conference in St. Thomas, Ont., on April 21, 2023.CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters

Jim Hinton is an intellectual-property lawyer and patent and trademark agent with Own Innovation.

We must face an uncomfortable truth: Canada’s automotive and EV manufacturing strategy, touted as a generational opportunity to drive economic growth, jobs and environmental leadership, has failed quickly and dramatically.

The federal and Quebec governments made a bad $4.6-billion dollar bet on Northvolt, a Swedish EV battery manufacturer, which has entered bankruptcy less than two years since a $7-billion investment announcement. The $270-million invested by Quebec in Northvolt’s parent company in Sweden is now “lost,” confirmed the provincial government in March.

The head of Canada’s Building Trades Unions called the subsidizing of foreign workers building the EV battery plant in Windsor, Ont., “a slap in the face” and an “insult to Canadian taxpayers.” And Umicore, another multibillion dollar project championed by our politicians near Kingston,

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