Regulatory approval from upper levels of government could be all that is standing between Chatham-Kent and a billion-dollar, multi-generation manufacturing investment in the municipality.
The heads of Canadian Energies met with local media last week to provide more details about their proposed $1.9 billion integrated “gigafactory campus” in Chatham-Kent, which would become North America’s first domestic producer of sodium-ion batteries.
Mark Garvin, founder and CEO of Canadian Energies, said his company has acquired the necessary investments needed to move forward with the campus, and they are having ongoing discussions with the federal and provincial governments to secure the appropriate regulatory permissions.
“We are very hyper-active in terms of building the entire manufacturing [facility]. We do have all the expertise of the world and past experience to do so. But when you build something, you have to sync with everything and everyone, whether it’s the federal government or province,” he said. “High-level discussion is going on, and we are very hopeful.”
Garvin added that they would like to break ground as soon as possible and the company has identified potential locations in Chatham-Kent for the campus. While exact location details could not be shared due to confidentiality agreements, Garvin said they will not be utilizing an existing building within the municipality.
“This entire project needs a dedicated, state-of-the-art manufacturing [facility],” he said.
The proposed green energy manufacturing campus is expected to have substantial economic spin-off for Chatham-Kent, including thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
Garvin also added that the socio-economic impact of the facility will not be limited to Chatham-Kent, and will be felt throughout the province and the country.
“This is going to be a benchmark for the world,” he said.
Canadian Energies and its proposed clean energy project were featured as part of the Canadian Investment Summit, which took place in Toronto earlier this month.
“We got an overwhelming response from the investors,” said Garvin. “We were the only green-tech company from Ontario, which was a very proud moment for us there.”