Kanadas 12-Milliarden-Dollar-U-Boot-Auftrag braucht im Gegenzug ein Automobilwerk: Joly

Let’s see a Hyundai assembly plant open in Ontario. 

Canada & South Korea need to make a 1,000-year military-industrial partnership together: Canada guaranteeing SK access to critical minerals, foods, commodities, and energy it produces. In return, SK builds factories in Canada and helps re-industrialize the nation. Each pledges assistance in defence of the other.

More than just a free trade deal, this partnership could help foster a golden age for both nations. 

So yes, let’s see a Hyundai or Kia assembly plant open, SK already owns a huge auto battery plant in Ontario. 

This is a pipe dream. It will never happen unless you count the existing/under construction EV battery plants that Germany and South Korea have in Ontario as “auto plants”. I suspect that the government is ultimately hoping that Korean (LG NextStar) and German (PowerCo) firms would make a production commitment on these plants, notwithstanding the US tariff uncertainty (they are supposed to supply EV production the US).

Assembling cars in Canada would be a massive undertaking for Hyundai/Kia and Volkswagen, as they would have to rebuild the entire supply network. The cost of doing so would far exceed the $12 billion that Canada would spend on submarines. As they already have sufficient production capacity in the US, it would make zero sense for them to build in Canada, especially given the current trading environment. The Canadian auto market is also far too small to absorb the production on its own, and our cost structure is not favourable for export to non-US markets.

I think one thing that we (as taxpayers) should be wary of is that ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) and its predecessor companies has been involved in numerous bribery scandals involving submarine procurements.

* 2016 – Israel Dolphin Class submarines and Saar-6 Corvettes. TKMS paid bribes to numerous close associates of Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the contracts. Numerous indictments were dropped in Israel, but Germany did not pursue corruption charges against TKMS.
* 2022 – Greece: The „Archimedes“ Project. TKMS paid €120 million in bribes to secure the sale of four Type 214 submarines all while the Greek economy was melting down. Greek Defense Minister, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Ferrostaal (a partner with TKMS owned HDW) was fined $140M.
* 2025 – Portugal: The Tridente-Class Deal. Cconsortium partners (Ferrostall and HDW) paid €6.4 million in „consulting fees“ which were allegedly funneled to Portuguese elites to „grease the wheels. German prosecutors proved that bribes were paid and secured convictions against Ferrostaal executives, the Portuguese courts eventually dropped their local case.
* 1981 – India Project 751. HDW (prior to TKMS acquisition) paid roughly $30M to Indian nationals to secure the deal for Shishumar-class (Dolphin class) submarines.
* 1990s – South Africa Frigates. The Frigate Consortium (which included TKMS) were alleged to have paid $3M in bribes to secure deal for 4 frigates and 3 submarines. South Africa cleared the deal of corruption allegations, but European prosecutors maintain the evidence of kickbacks was substantial

Hanwha Ocean, the Korean candidate is not squeaky clean either, but their scandals are financial (totaling over $4.6B) and related to accounting scandals by their predecessor company Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DMSE) – reporting fake profits to hide massive losses from their offshore businesses. Their CEO went to jail and the company was bought by Hanwha Ocean.

You cannot build a defence procurement system around unrelated industrial spinoffs and still maintain any sort of coherent process that will deliver on capability, value and availability.

„This is no way to run a railroad“