The Mayor of Chatham-Kent says the municipality didn't have to do much to land a new auto parts plant in Chatham.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said no incentives, like tax breaks, had to be promised to get Magna International's Formet Industries in St. Thomas to expand into Chatham to make battery casings for the Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck.
Canniff said the municipality didn't have to throw a lot of money at the company to put down roots in Chatham because the company realized the opportunity is economical enough to come here.
Canniff said he fully expects more investments and jobs down the road because Magna is now in Chatham.
"The key piece here is Magna is very selective about where they locate and a lot of other companies will follow suit where Magna goes. So, Magna making a significant investment of $50-$100 million in Chatham-Kent, there will be lots of spinoff from that," said Canniff.
Canniff said the municipality was part of the discussion to land the new plant but most of the negotiations were done by the owner of the property.
"The beauty is the municipality did not have to kick in anything. It's an existing property. They're modifying the existing building. If they were building a new building, we certainly would have had tax incentives and various things. But given they're moving into an existing building, there were no incentives that had to be given in this case," the mayor noted.
Canniff said the municipality will do whatever it can to help the new plant get established, such as job fairs and other things.
The new plant at 125 Irwin Street will create up to 150 new jobs. Production is expected to begin this fall.
