To the Point for the Week of November 16, 2025
To the Point for the Week of November 16, 2025
Amidst all the economic doomscrolling we may find ourselves doing lately, there was a bright and encouraging piece of Ontario economic news this week that deserves more attention and emulation. The Prime Minister’s budget passes its first hurdle, just barely, to avoid an election nobody wants.
ONTARIO
St. Thomas the Tank Engine
In what is a great story of economic resilience and political leadership, the Premier was in St. Thomas yesterday, flanked by Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Minister Vic Fedeli as well as Mayor Joe Preston, to announce a $3.2 billion investment in a synthetic graphite plant at Yarmouth Yards Industrial Park in the small town of 48,000 residents. It is a very welcome piece of news for not only St. Thomas, but for the province as well.
St. Thomas has a long automotive history. A once-mighty Ford plant was the backbone of the town’s economy. If you rode in a Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, or Lincoln Town Car, you rode in a vehicle manufactured at the Ford plant in Southwold. Unfortunately, the plant closed in 2011 after Ford earmarked it for closure in 2009 due to an enormous corporate restructuring to improve the company’s bottom line. Twelve hundred workers lost their jobs.
Fast forward over ten years, the automotive industry in Canada is being threatened, and all the corporate promises and taxpayer support of EV and battery manufacturing operations weren’t enough to stave off declining demand, poor business decisions, and US tariffs. Northvolt (Quebec), Umicore (Loyalist Township), Honda (Alliston), GM BrightDrop (Ingersoll), and Stellantis (Windsor) have cancelled, delayed, paused, or repurposed their Ontario-based EV ambitions.
Yet, St. Thomas is bucking this trend. The PowerCo/Volkswagen plant is under construction, and VW has confirmed production will begin in 2027. The investment announced by Vianode represents North America’s first large-scale, low-emission synthetic graphite facility. It is set to create 300 jobs during the first phase and grow to 1,000 at full capacity. It is estimated that 150,000 tonnes of synthetic graphite will be produced annually, enough to support two million electric vehicles.
The town should be the poster child of municipal planning for economic growth. St. Thomas established the Yarmouth Yards mega site, a 1,500-acre site specifically to be able to attract large industrial investment. The site was pre-planned with infrastructure, including arterial roadways, rail spurs, water booster stations, utility connections, and zoning already in place. St. Thomas purchased land before announcing major projects and was ready to receive investments that required immediate site availability. The town took the concept of “shovel-ready” to a whole new level.
It is also embarking on a 10-year, $1.2 billion infrastructure capital plan by using a “complete streets” approach – an urban planning and infrastructure design that prioritizes creating streets that safely and comfortably accommodate all users and modes of transportation, not just cars – to maximize lifecycle efficiency. The ten-year plan was bolstered earlier this year with $6.7M in community infrastructure funding from the province.
We could go on, like how St. Thomas purposely planned for a strategic sector focus on electric vehicles and battery supply chains with PowerCo (battery cells), Vianode (synthetic graphite), and an existing automotive supplier network that has created a resilient, integrated supply chain. We could also highlight the town’s focus on attracting large employers that would create stable employment that draws in new residents and attracting spinoff and supporting service businesses.
But the most significant element in St. Thomas’ turnaround from the 2011 Ford plant closure is competency and continuity in local leadership. Former Mayor Heather Jackson and current Mayor Joe Preston deserve credit for the long-term rebound St. Thomas is experiencing. The continued growth over two administrations demonstrates a sustained commitment and institutional buy-in for a long-term strategy that specifically avoided the impulse to chase trends.
The quiet town in Southwest Ontario could have been devastated after the Ford plant shut its doors. Instead, St. Thomas is proving to be a model for all municipalities to follow. Its leadership didn’t chase quick fixes or seek subsidies for failing business models. Across two administrations, it embarked on a deliberate and calculated rebuilding process, focusing on investing in strategic infrastructure for anticipated growth that took 14 years before a large payoff. It did not make single-industry bets or allow sprawl without planning, thinking beyond election cycles with a 26-year planning horizon.
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