On the heels of last week’s federal budget announcement, officials were in Kelowna, B.C., on Tuesday as part of a provincial tour to promote Budget 2023.
International Development Minister Harjit S. Sajjan focused on the federal government’s investments to build a clean economy during Tuesday’s press conference.
“This budget makes transformative investments to build Canada’s clean economy, fight climate change, and create new opportunities for Canadian businesses and Canadian workers,” said Sajjan.
“Now this includes significant measures that will deliver cleaner and more affordable energy, support investments in our communities and create good-paying middle-class jobs.”
Sajjan made the comments at Kelowna’s new zero-emission vehicle systems manufacturer, Hexagon Purus.
“Budget 2023 will help companies like Hexagon Purus continue to fight climate change, retool for the new economy and build … net-zero industries of tomorrow,” said Sajjan.
“The company is already a global supplier to the automotive, transportation, aviation and aerospace industries and to meet the increasing demand for zero emission vehicles.”
Hexagon Purus produces zero-emission power trains for commercial vehicles and mobility application space for commercial vehicles, marine, rail and aerospace.
The company is expanding its manufacturing capacity in Canada with a 60,000-square-foot building in Kelowna.
“This expansion will help improve the adoption of zero-emission vehicles in our country that is critical to Canada’s transition to a cleaner economy,” Sajjan added.
“Since 2019, the company has grown from 17 to 87 employees today, with plans to employ up 150 people in the variety of research development and manufacturing positions.”
The company’s executive vice-president, Todd Sloan, said Hexagon has relied on local resources to staff the facility.
“There’s a great workforce talent here, the UBCO has been very supportive of what we do,” he said.
Sloan went on to say that the company has recently entered into a $2-billion (USD) contract with Hino Motors with the goal of fully electrify their trucks.
“Start of production on that is September 2024, and the team is working hard between now and then to get ready for that.”
Meanwhile, Sajjan acknowledged that while taking steps to increase economic opportunities, the government will also look at the direct impacts this will have on communities.
“We have to look and work with the municipality, look at the number of people that are coming in. The municipality then can work on their own housing plan and take a look at where they can get the funding,” said Sajjan.
“Federally provide a lot of funding to the province to provide support on housing. But we also have programs that can work directly with the municipalities including developers on even rentals.”