The Niagara Region is becoming a burgeoning hub of electric vehicle manufacturing for Ontario. And a well-known Northern Ontario brownfield developer, the BMI Group, is in the thick of it as a large industrial landholder on the peninsula.
Paul Veldman, CEO of BMI Group, took part in an Oct. 17 panel discussion at the Toronto Global Forum on Niagara’s success and its team approach toward attracting foreign investment.
BMI pulled off the largest transaction in its history in providing a home for Tokyo-based Asahi Kasei Corp. and its decision earlier this year to invest $1.6 billion to build an EV battery separator plant in Port Colborne, the first of its kind in Canada.
Successfully reeling in the Japanese multinational was a teamwork of Ontario and Niagara regional governments and business partners.
The arrival of Asahi Kasei in Port Colborne was called by provincial Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli a testament to what’s happening in the bustling Niagara region and Ontario, a manufacturing revival that was part of the Ford government’s effort to revive Ontario’s automotive sector.
So far Ontario landed $44 billion in foreign investment in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, part of a ”remarkable turnaround in Ontario” of the auto sector, Fedeli said, enabling the province to become a leading North American destination for EV production and advanced vehicle technology solutions.
The Niagara story, Fedeli pointed out, is an offshoot of the Ford government’s Driving Prosperity plan to reduce the automakers’ cost of doing business, keep them from leaving the province and encouraging corporate reinvestment.
To Paul Veldman, having their properties investment-ready when opportunities strike has stood them well.
“We are ready when they knock on our door,”
BMI Group, a family business of three brothers, prides itself on being the single largest holder of idled paper mill properties in Ontario. On its website, the company displays a portfolio of properties in Iroquois Falls, Red Rock, Fort Frances, Thorold, Stratford and Tillsonburg.
BMI recently made its latest foray into Michigan with a shuttered mill acquisition there.
The Veldman brothers began in business as a landscape construction and property maintenance company in southwestern Ontario, counting Toyota Woodstock as a client, before spinning off into industrial assets beginning with the acquisition of the shuttered St. Marys Paper mill property in Sault Ste. Marie in 2012.
Though BMI’s track record of development in Northern Ontario has been spotty, it’s most notable venture to date has been its alliance with the Red Rock Indian Band and Rock Tech Lithium to site a proposed lithium refinery on a former mill site on the north shore of Lake Superior.
Properties like paper mills, Veldman said, come with plenty of existing “backbone infrastructure” in the form of power and water connections, ample space, and road and rail transportation links.
With a surge in exploration and mining activity taking place in the North — and the Ring of Fire offering an opportunity to extend roads and power into the Far North — Veldman said BMI is committed to spending “tens of millions of dollars” in the North to prepare its properties to support new industrial players.
Through Red Rock, BMI is promoting a critical minerals corridor that will move processed battery-grade material to future EV-related plants in the Niagara region.
The panel moderator, Raed Kadri of the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network, noted critical minerals is a gamechanger for Ontario, linking north to south. It’s the first time, he said, the entire province can participate in the automotive sector.
Sam Mills, Asahi Kasei’s vice-president of supply chain, said it was an easy decision to come set up shop in Port Colborne for what they hope will be a long-term community relationship.
He describes his company’s ethos as being deliberate, thoughtful, and contemplative in making long-term decisions.
Encouraged by a Memorandum of Cooperation signed between Canada and Japan in 2023 to build a bilateral battery supply chain, Asahi Kasei remarked “Ontario has a machine and they’re ready to go.”
Mills heaped praise on the province and Niagara's regional government for their “whiteglove service approach” toward attracting foreign investment. Few places they scouted, he said, had better top-to-bottom alignment by all levels of government in having fully serviced, investment-ready sites, the access to a skilled and talented workforce, with nearby universities to help drive innovation.
With BMI, Mills noted they found a philosophical fit that aligns with their vision in the way they act and operate. Asahi Kasei, he said, emphasizes investment in projects that change the planet for the better and leave a legacy for generations to come.
All things considered, Mills said their Ontario experience was the “living embodiment of what we wanted to become a part of “
On his visit to Japan to negotiate a deal with Asahi Kasei, Veldman said it became evident it had grown into more than a transaction, and was a problem-solving exercise to create a lasting relationship. There was a connection among the people in the room to make the Niagara plant a reality.
If all goes well in Port Colborne for Asahi Kasei, Veldman expects more impactful investment will come.
When asked how to keep the Niagara momentum going, Mills suggested that the region shouldn’t rest on its laurels, but keep its focus, stay ready and “be selective” on who it wants to do business with.
Other companies will follow in Asahi Kasei’s footsteps, he said, and will want to relocate to the area. Have serviced property that’s ready to go when the moment arises, he advised.
“Continue to choose wisely and make sure that people are aligned philosophically, emotionally with what you want to get done within the region and within the province,” said Mills, “because they’re moving in, so make sure you like your new neighbours.
“Make sure they think about the world the way you think you think about the world,” when it comes to matters of the environment and issues that concern people from the mining stage all the way through to manufacturing.
