General Motors Canada President Marissa West defended the auto-industry’s negotiations for subsidies on Monday, saying Canada would be “shortsighted” to turn away companies looking to invest in electric-vehicle plants, given the speed and scale at which the industry is evolving.

“I think any and all support is welcomed and necessary. Now we recognize this is on us, as an industry, to transform. But we have a lot of options,” said West at The Logic Summit in Toronto. “So I do think that it’s important for Canada to recognize this is a generational opportunity.” 

Her comments come as automakers face growing political resistance to manufacturing subsidies in Canada, where the agenda of securing jobs for the next generation of autoworkers has run up against limits on the country’s ability to match U.S. spending.

Incentives recently offered to Volkswagen to establish an Ontario electric-vehicle gigafactory elicited skepticism over whether it will create the number of jobs projected, and concern that it will cost taxpayers billions more than planned. The deal was designed to compete with the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, with incentives that could add up to $16.3 billion over time. But its immediate effect was to grind construction to a halt for a separate Ontario gigafactory being built by Stellantis, as the Netherlands-based automaker demanded similar levels of support. 

General Motors has been offered about $518 million in federal and provincial funding to retool its Ingersoll, Ont. and Oshawa, Ont. plants, as well as nearly $300 million for its battery-materials plant in Quebec, some of which is forgivable, depending on whether jobs are created and maintained for 10 years.

Some of those manufacturing commitments from GM came were tied to 2020 union negotiations with Unifor. But those deals come up for renegotiation in a few months, setting up a test of Canada’s ability to maintain a competitive environment for auto manufacturing.

Though GM has to date received billions less in Canadian subsidies than Volkswagen, West said companies “will invest, shortsighted or not, where some of the subsidies are.” 

“That will entice them,” she said. “I applaud Canada for attempting to keep pace with the U.S. We know that there isn’t as much money as the U.S. has in the IRA.” 

The IRA favours companies that build products in the U.S., North America or with trusted trade partners, in part as a response to China’s early dominance of the EV sector. While there’s “a long way to go,” West said, she still believes that Canada can “leapfrog other nations” by building a better EV supply chain. She pointed to Canada’s clean electrical grid, its comparatively open immigration policies and its strong talent base as other advantages of the country.

“We were the pioneers of the internal combustion engine. And unfortunately… years later, we are part of the problem, right?” she said of GM. “As a company, the most impactful thing that you can do to fight climate change, which is the major issue of our generation, is to eliminate those tailpipe emissions.”