Ontario’s electric vehicle industry is getting a boost with a $3.2 billion feeder factory, but the new jobs won’t make up for thousands lost recently at auto assembly plants in Brampton and the London area.

Norwegian company Vianode said Thursday it will make synthetic graphite — a key component of lithium ion batteries — in St. Thomas, near the site of a massive EV battery plant under construction by Volkswagen subsidiary PowerCo.

Vianode will get a $670 million loan from Ontario taxpayers for the project, expected to create 300 jobs when production begins and 1,000 when full capacity is reached, supplying customers in North America and Europe while challenging China’s 80 per cent dominance of the industry.

“We’re going to keep doing everything in our power to support our workers, attr

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