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CEA in the News

Federal government snubs Vianode’s plans for graphite plant at Windsor airport

Niall McGee - Mining Reporter, Toronto
Golbe & Mail · Posted: April 11, 2025

Vianode’s plans to build a graphite plant in Ontario have suffered a setback, with the federal government opposing the Norwegian company’s proposal to build the facility on the grounds of Windsor International Airport over concerns that emissions stacks could affect airport operations.

Privately held Vianode made a big splash in January after it landed a multibillion-dollar deal to supply synthetic graphite to General Motors for electric vehicles. At the time, Vianode said it intended to build a plant in North America and signalled that Ontario was the frontrunner.

Phil Roberts, an environmental advocate, board member of the Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, former director of operations at Windsor airport and former member of Transport Canada’s Bird Strike Committee, said he was privy to the negotiations between the proposed plant’s key players, including those involving the City of Windsor – the owner of the airport – and then federal Transport Minister Anita Anand.

The minister basically said, ‘You’re going to be out of your obligation to manage it as an airport if you build these enormous smokestacks in the middle of your airfield,‘” Mr. Roberts said in an interview.

The end of Vianode’s plans came after many months of back and forth.

Last summer, the company and the City of Windsor engaged in discussions about building the plant on airport land, Mr. Roberts said, but airport operator Your Quick Gateway (Windsor) Inc. worried the facility could interfere with airport operations.

“The plants that were being proposed had not only an enormous footprint, something like 114 acres, they were proposing emissions stacks 65 metres tall,” he said.

Even though stacks of that size on the outskirts of an airfield would be in violation of airport zoning regulations (AZR), which limit the heights of buildings and structures around airfields, those rules typically do not extend to land within the airport grounds.

“Transport Canada essentially can’t enforce federal zoning [rules], AZR zoning, where they don’t exist,” Mr. Roberts said.

Despite the concerns about the stacks, Mr. Roberts said, the city was determined to go ahead with the development.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, through his chief of staff Christopher Lawrence Menard, declined to comment.

The City, including Mayor Dilkens, tend not to give interviews with these types of specifics around any investment leads,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail.

Your Quick Gateway (Windsor) also declined comment.

Vianode declined to comment on any talks around the Windsor development.

Transport Canada did not provide a response by deadline.

As talks between the various players continued toward the tail end of 2024, local environmentalists railed against the development because it would have entailed the destruction of provincially protected wetlands.

The wetlands are located on the Little River, which flows into the Detroit River and has historically suffered massive pollution from industrial contaminants on the Detroit side.

“Tons of work has been done on the Little River to bring it back from the brink of near death,” Mr. Roberts said.

“It’s also the headwater of the Detroit River, and a big part of its success, a big part of its ecology, is the airport woodlots being swamp wetlands. So there’s a number of factors here for us, environmentally and locally. It’s not just tree huggers.”

Mr. Roberts said Vianode challenged the legitimacy of the wetlands’ protected status, believing it had a case after Ontario Premier Doug Ford tightened the rules under which lands could be designated as protected.

Ultimately, however, it was Transport Canada that kiboshed the development – not explicitly because of environmental concerns but because of its concerns about the stacks affecting airport operations.

With Windsor airport no longer an option for Vianode to build its plant, it’s unclear if the company will seek an alternative location in the city, explore other locations in Ontario or other provinces or even consider investing in the U.S. instead.

The past few months of on-again, off-again tariff chaos is also making companies think twice about making massive industrial investments in North America.

But even amid all this uncertainty, Vianode appears determined to plough ahead.

“There are no changes to Vianode’s establishment plans,” said Hans Iver Odenrud, Vianode’s adviser on corporate development and communication, in an e-mail. “The current plan remains to set up the next site in North America.”