Vic Fedeli

Vic Fedeli's ministry negotiated the Volkswagen St. Thomas and Stellantis Windsor battery plant deals — the biggest industrial investments in Ontario in a generation. The subsidies involved are enormous. The accountability question is whether the jobs and supply chain development over the next decade justify the public cost. He's been a credible economic development voice with a background in northern Ontario resource communities that gives him a different perspective than the GTA-centric ministers. On the US tariff file, he understands Ontario's manufacturing geography at a level that matters for advocacy. The public needs to track what it's getting back for the investments being made. That's the long-term test.

Vic Fedeli represents Nipissing as an Ontario MPP and has served as Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade — the minister responsible for the most significant industrial policy achievement of the Ford government's tenure: anchoring Ontario in the EV battery manufacturing supply chain through the Volkswagen plant in St. Thomas and the Stellantis-LG battery facility in Windsor. The scale of public investment in these facilities — provincial and federal subsidies totalling tens of billions combined — reflects a deliberate bet that the window for attracting major EV manufacturing investment is narrow, that competitors are subsidizing aggressively, and that failing to anchor these facilities in Ontario would cost the province's manufacturing base far more in the long run than the subsidy cost. The economic logic is defensible; the accountability question is whether the jobs, technology transfer, and supply chain development that follow justify the public investment at the scale committed. On the US tariff front — which threatens Ontario's auto sector more acutely than any other Canadian province — Fedeli has been part of the provincial government's coordinated advocacy with federal counterparts for trade protection and counter-measures. His understanding of the specific geography of Ontario's manufacturing communities, from Oshawa to Windsor, gives him credibility in those conversations that ministers with different backgrounds wouldn't have. He previously served as Finance Minister and was a legitimate economic voice in the cabinet before moving to Economic Development. His northern Ontario riding roots give him a perspective on resource communities and economic diversification outside the GTA that the ministry's mandate requires.