Another week has come and gone, and still no news on a Stellantis deal with the federal government.
Earlier this week, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Ottawa that a deal is coming as the federal government has been renegotiating its support for the NextStar battery plant in Windsor since construction was halted in May.
The provincial government has offered to increase financial support for the project, and the federal industry minister has said progress is being made to restart work at the plant.
Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy says from Day 1 of this impasse he's been on the phone with politicians from different levels and leaders like Mark Stewart at Stellantis to reiterate the importance of this project.
"I call everybody there is, and I shake trees every single day, and I'm going to shake those trees until we get the answer that we need," he continued. "This is so important to us, some people don't understand just how important, and on top of that the supply base has not been negatively affected."
Cassidy says Invest WindsorEssex still has a lot of potential for supply chain companies and investments coming that is just waiting for the situation to be resolved favourably.
Last week, Stellantis confirmed they had received a written offer from the federal government, which was under financial and legal review.
Cassidy says he was hoping that it would be resolved by now, but everyone involved from the various levels of government and Stellantis are going through the process.
"Let's not kid anybody, Stellantis' lawyers need to go through it. I mean if it was me, I'd sign it and say OK let's move forward, but they've got to make sure everything is correct. All the t's crossed and i's dotted before they bring it out, I did not think it would be this long, because I'm really antsy and don't sleep at night over this."
He says they've got no doubt at this stage that the documents will be signed.
"100 per cent those documents will be signed. I mean, 22 months ago we made a big announcement, you guys were all there. We were all singing kumbaya and everything else, move forward and the Inflation Reduction Act comes out, and now the game changed. So we want to make sure that everything is in place and we're moving forward," he said.
Stellantis last month stopped construction at the $5 billion plant, which is being built in partnership with South Korea's LG Energy Solution, saying the federal government had not fulfilled promises.
- with files from AM800's Rob Hindi