Industry and Jobs Special Report
Umicore, Invista, Highline, and more
Welcome to the Kingston Labour News
In this special report:
INVISTA abandons Maitland plant for Texas
Investigation: Dead batteries in Loyalist Township
Highline closes Wellington mushroom facility
Grand opening for RXN Hub
Kingston Jobs Report
INVISTA abandons Maitland mill for Texas
American-owned Invista is closing its 71-year-old chemical plant in Maitland which provides jobs across Brockville and Leeds Grenville. A hundred jobs will be wiped out. The decision was made by the American multinational Koch Industries, which blames the Trump-initiated trade war with Canada. Koch is moving production to one of its chemical plants in Texas. The Maitland plant manufactures plastics, adhesives, water treatment chemicals, and other materials.
Koch Industries also owns the Invista nylon mill in Kingston which currently employs more than five hundred people, most of whom are members of the Kingston Independent Nylon Workers Union. Current production includes air bags, which the mill was instrumental in developing through its on-site research and development facility.
The DuPont monopoly owned the Kingston mill from its wartime founding in 1942 to the $4.2 billion sale of its textiles subsidiary, Invista, to Koch Industries in 2003. Koch Industries is run by CEO Charles Koch who inherited the company from his father. Charles Koch and his brother David are billionaires well-known for financing right-wing political groups across the United States committed to “free market” corporate rule of society, including the imposition of anti-union laws in American states.
DEAD BATTERIES IN LOYALIST TOWNSHIP
An investigation into Umicore and Canada’s EV strategy
By Doug Nesbitt
On October 16 2023 it was all smiles for the cameras in Loyalist Township when politicians and corporate executives gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony to build a new $2.761 billion Electric Vehicle battery parts plant.
The smiling politicians included Premier Doug Ford and his economic minister, Vic Fedeli, as well as Kingston’s MP Mark Gerretsen, local MPP Ric Bresee and federal industry minister, François-Philippe Champagne. Even the Belgian Ambassador to Canada was there. The politicians were boasting 600 construction jobs, 700 permanent positions and 700 student co-op placements.
The Belgian multinational, Umicore, was also smiling because they were lined up for $979.5 million in taxpayer subsidies. At almost a billion dollars, the huge taxpayer subsidy came from two sources. The federal Liberals were putting in $551.3 million through the Strategic Innovation Fund, and the Ontario government $424.6 million. The remaining $3.6 million is presumably municipal subsidies, but this has not been confirmed.
Taxpayer subsidies account for 35.3 percent of Umicore’s projected costs. There is no report of any federal or provincial government acquiring equity in the battery plant. On the day of the groundbreaking, Umicore enjoyed a 14 percent spike in share prices. Umicore posted a 2023 profit of €972 million, or about $1.4 billion.
Umicore’s billion-dollar handshake came shortly after automaking giant, Stellantis, secured a $15 billion federal-provincial subsidy in May 2023. Stellantis was originally promised $1 billion for its new battery assembly plant near Windsor but halted construction after $14 billion in public subsidies was promised to Volkswagen for a new $7 billion battery assembly in St. Thomas. Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau quickly paid the ransom. Stellantis now commands a $15 billion subsidy for the $5 billion battery plant.
Canada’s EV strategy based entirely on taxpayer subsidies
Umicore’s arrival in Loyalist Township was part of a major influx of American and European investment into Canada’s transition to Electric Vehicles and lithium-ion battery production. These investments were only made possible through enormous subsidies financed by taxpayers.
Between 2020 and 2024, Premier Ford, Prime Minister Trudeau and Quebec Premier Francois Legault, worked together to roll out nearly $50 billion in taxpayer subsidies to just 16 industrial projects, including EV conversion of auto assemblies, “Green Steel” in Hamilton and Sault Ste Marie, an electric furnace for Rio Tinto in Quebec, and tire production.
According to Globe & Mail business columnist, Eric Reguly, $46 billion in corporate investment relating to EVs and batteries was promised only through $52 billion in taxpayer subsidies.
America First puts Canada last
Within months of the Umicore groundbreaking, decisions made in the White House began to seriously upset Canada’s corporate welfare EV strategy. On May 14, 2024, as part of his America First economic strategy, President Biden imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made EVs and 25 percent tariff on Chinese batteries entering the United States. A month later, on June 12, the European Union followed suit, imposing their own tariffs on Chinese-made EVs and batteries.
Umicore halted construction in July, only nine months after the groundbreaking. The corporation blamed a general downturn in demand from their existing customers, but also pointed to the failure to achieve a contract with a Chinese battery parts supplier on June 12, the very day the European Union imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs and batteries.
With massive subsidies flowing into American and European corporate coffers, the Trudeau government followed Washington’s lead in August, and imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made EVs. By November, Umicore issued 260 layoffs but refused to disclose how many layoffs were in Loyalist. By the end of 2024, Umicore posted a 29 percent drop in revenues, and announced plans to shift its focus to existing operations in Poland and South Korea.
It was reported that no Ontario taxpayer money flowed into Umicore’s coffers, and it appears that federal subsidies would only flow based on employment guarantees. Kingston Labour News has not yet ascertained how much federal taxpayer dollars were sent to Umicore through the Strategic Innovation Fund.
Canadian workers and taxpayers bear the costs
Unlike with Umicore, Quebec taxpayers did get robbed of $470 million with the NorthVolt bankruptcy in March 2025. NorthVolt, an untested Swedish corporation, was set to build a $7 billion battery facility just east of Montreal. With $4.4 billion from the federal government, and $3 billion from the Quebec government, NorthVolt still went bankrupt despite a 106 percent subsidy! As of early September 2025, the Quebec government has only been able to recover $200 million of the $470 million. It is now trying to recover a $240 million loan issued to NorthVolt to help it buy land for the project.
Since the Umicore announcement in July 2024, Canada’s EV conversion strategy has started to crumble. Despite the massive taxpayer subsidies, the auto assemblies of GM Oshawa, GM Ingersoll, and Ford Oakville have issued multi-year layoffs to thousands of auto workers, which has in turn led to layoffs across the much wider auto parts industry in Ontario and up through Quebec.
More recently, Stellantis announced that its EV conversion to Jeep Compass production in Brampton would be stopped and the product line moved to one of the corporation’s American assemblies in Illinois. Laid off since January 2024 for the EV conversion, the livelihoods of 3,000 Brampton autoworkers now hang in the balance. Premier Doug Ford is very angry at Stellantis, especially after coughing up $5 billion for the Stellantis battery plant ransom in 2023.
The situation also means that, for the first time since the great union victories of the 1940s, there are probably more non-union auto assembly workers in Canada than union. Toyota assemblies in Cambridge and Woodstock and the Honda Alliston assembly remain non-union. In April 2024, Honda Alliston announced a $15 billion EV conversion, with the Trudeau and Ford splitting the costs of a $5 billion taxpayer subsidy. Yet, even Honda announced a two-year delay on these upgrades back in May 2025. Union or not, Ontario is on the cusp of seeing its auto industry collapse if assemblies remain offline or close.
Trump’s tariffs and Canada’s dilemma
With his threats of annexation by “economic force”, Trump has sustained his tariff attacks on Canada. Novelis laid off 21 Kingston workers in June following Trump’s tariffs on aluminum. The steel industry in Canada has been hammered with tariffs and is receiving hundreds of millions in public subsidies as a result. These new subsidies come on top of the massive taxpayer subsidies to install Electric Arc Furnaces to produce “green steel” at Algoma Steel in Sault Ste Marie and at Hamilton’s non-union Dofasco plant owned by ArcelorMittal.
The federal, Ontario and Quebec governments now face Trump’s job-killing tariffs, the withdrawal of American and European investments and production, and their own commitments to following the American lead on blocking Chinese investments and its more advanced and cheaper EV technology. While Premier Doug Ford says “no damn way” to dropping Canada’s tariffs on Chinese EVs, Western Canadian premiers representing the (corporate) interests of oil & gas, mining, and agriculture, are pressing for Chinese tariffs to be dropped.
The situation leaves Canada with few serious options in securing jobs, developing green technologies and protecting vital strategic assets, such as vehicle manufacturing, steel, agriculture, and the resource industries. The division between Ford and the Western premiers places the responsibility on the Prime Minister’s shoulders.
Canada’s choices
There have been no signs of Prime Minister Carney’s government abandoning the failed corporate welfare program for EV conversion which cannot survive “America First” tariffs and a trade war with China. A choice must be made because the emerging alternative is more deindustrialization and more job losses.
Two other options do exist. Dropping the tariffs on Chinese EVs and encouraging Chinese investment in Ontario’s auto industry is one option. This, however, would not be politically popular until, perhaps, it delivered on jobs as it has with Kingston’s Canada Royal Milk baby formula factory, which is owned by Chinese multinational Feihi.
A more viable option, one that has not been seriously proposed since the 1970s, is the creation of a crown corporation for auto: an independent Canadian EV battery and car company, including research and development. Money is clearly no issue. The federal, Ontario and Quebec governments have already found and promised $50 billion in taxpayer subsidies for American and European corporations who have no commitment to Canada.
The Umicore site, which promised 700 permanent jobs, sits silent in Loyalist Township. The federal and provincial government were already prepared to put up a 35 percent subsidy, and have coughed up billions for other corporations who have turned around and laid off workers and moved production south. Why not continue the EV project under public ownership and secure Canada’s manufacturing and green technology future?
Highline closes Wellington mushroom facility
By Sean McNeill
Under the guise of safety considerations, Highline Produce announced on September 18th the imminent closure of its Wellington, Prince Edward County mushroom plant. The official justifcation offered by the Vice-President, Human Resources: “it longer meets our long-term safety standards.” Safety issues at the facility were well known, but the announcement was unexpected. Highline Produce is among the largest employers in Prince Edward County, with 281 non-unionized workers.
Safety at Wellington and other Canadian facilities
The company’s stated concern for safety standards gives the impression that its safety record was despite its best intentions, and unique to its Wellington operation. A serious injury in 2018, a critical injury in 2019, and the death of a worker in 2022 demonstrate a pattern of neglect at Wellington. Since 2022, there was a critical injury at Highline’s Kingsville, Ontario facility, safety compliance fines in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and a devastating fire and second smaller fire within six months in Airdrie, Alberta. It is unclear how the Wellington closure will influence this dismal record.
Though reluctant to invest in safe mushroom production at a proven facility, the company did find money to invest in re-branding and refreshed marketing. Under the banner of “Eat a Mushroom. Be Super”, the company’s packaging has been updated with vibrant colours to excite Millennial and Gen Z consumers. It is also investing in a so-called “farm of the future”, a Leamington-based operation that replaces its Wellington output.
While the company is celebrating its new future in Leamington and colourful packaging, farm workers and local communities will remain skeptical about its commitment to improved safety standards. It was, of course, concerns of profit which drove the company away from the necessary investments for safe operations in Wellington.
Highline and Union-Busting
Physical infrastructure and work protocols loom large in the safety compliance reports against the company, but it is their heavy reliance on non-unionized workers, many of them temporary foreign workers, that drives a culture of complacency and fear of retaliation, ensuring safety infractions will persist. In British Columbia, where farm workers have union rights, five Highline Mushroom factories have been unionized in the past three years by UFCW Local 1518.
Highline Produce played a pivotal role in Ontario’s storied history of agricultural anti-unionism. A successful 1994 union drive by UFCW in Leamington was responded to the following year by the Harris government’s legislative repeal of farm worker union rights and certification of the Leamington facility. Despite a favourable Charter challenge against this early legislation, the Tories maneuvered and passed The Agricultural Workers Protection Act in 2002, which still today prohibits strikes and denies farm workers the right of free collective bargaining.
Until true union representation comes to all of Canada’s agricultural workers, the industry will remain among the highest offenders in workplace injuries and deaths. With no true consequences for injuring and killing workers, companies like Highline will continue to treat their facilities and workers as depreciating assets, focusing investments on a profitable future for shareholders and the expense of workers and local communities.
Grand opening for RXN Hub
City invest $3 million in public-private partnership
The RXN Hub, or Reaction Hub, had its grand opening on October 20 at 945 Princess Street. According to a City of Kingston press release, the RXN Hub is “Canada’s newest centre for green chemistry innovation and commercialization,” and the $3 million Kingston taxpayer subsidy, “is a strategy to drive economic growth through sustainable technology and to position the city as a national leader in cleantech business development.” Mayor Paterson was quoted in the press release saying “Reaction Hub represents exactly the kind of bold partnership Kingston needs to stay competitive and sustainable.”
Modern Niagara is the City’s partner in the Reaction Hub which is run by a new non-profit. It is intended to bridge research and development with advanced manufacturing, providing private businesses the opportunity to “accelerate, scale-up, attract investment and bring sustainable technologies to market,” according to the City.
Speaking to the Whig-Standard, the Reaction Hub’s Executive Director, Morgan Lehtinen, said the $3 million taxpayer subsidy was used to renovate the building and provide equipment “inaccessible to companies at this stage.” No financial or other information was provided in City of Kingston press releases or local news reports about the Modern Niagara’s financial investment beyond its ownership of the facility.
Formerly part of Kingston’s once-sprawling ALCAN works, Modern Niagara bought 945 Princess in 2021. Modern Niagara is a Canadian corporation known for building services such as HVAC, mechanical, electrical and some fabrication capabilities, and position itself as an “integrated building technology contractor.” Modern Niagara was one of the dozens of employer struck in spring 2022 during province-wide building trades disputes, including the Sheet Metal Workers International Association.
KINGSTON QUARTERLY JOBS REPORT
Unemployment rate dips to 6.7 percent
The official unemployment rate in the Kingston area continues to fall after quarter-century highs in April and May of more than 8 percent (excluding the early COVID-19 Pandemic). The unemployment rate in September 2025 stood at 6.7 percent, compared to 7.9 percent for Ontario and 7.1 percent across Canada.
Employment rate below Ontario and Canadian average
The falling unemployment rate since the April-May unemployment peak can be partially attributed to the 1.6 percent decline in the employment rate since April. The employment rate measures people over 15 years who are working as a percentage of the population. At 58.2 percent, Kingston’s employment rate is below the Ontario average of 60.6 percent and Canadian average of 59.7 percent.
Job growth stalling
From September 2024 to September 2025, full-time jobs have grown by 1,300 and part-time jobs are down by 300, resulting in a net growth of 1,000 jobs over the past 12 months. Taking a longer view, total employment levels sit at 76,300 compared to 76,900 in September 2023 and 73,800 in September 2022.
Population growth slows
The Kingston region’s population, according to Statistics Canada’s Employment Insurance numbers, is 161,900, up from 160,000 last September. It stood at 154,600 in September 2023 and 150,800 in September 2022.
KLN source material: All data drawn from Statistics Canada tables 14-10-0287-01 and 14-10-0458-01.