LILLEY: No, Justin Trudeau didn’t give VW and Stellantis billions

The easy thing to do in commenting on the deals the Trudeau government has signed with Volkswagen and Stellantis would be to slam them.

You’ve heard that the government has offered these companies billions of dollars in subsidies, that this is money out the window and we are on the hook for it no matter what.

Given the news that VW is laying off 269 temporary workers at the Zwickau plant after subsidies were phased out, the claim has been made that the same thing will happen here. Say goodbye to the $13 billion we gave Volkswagen several messages said after the news broke.

That this came on the heels of a report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer saying it would take 20 years to recoup these “subsidies” made things even worse.

I hate to be the one defending the Trudeau government on this issue but the claims being made by critics on the left and the right and by the PBO just simply aren’t fair. The Trudeau government’s offer to both VW and Stellantis is based on what is described as production tax credits.