EDITORIAL: Carney should kill Trudeau’s EV mandates
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Given that Prime Minister Mark Carney is willing to abandon dumb ideas from the Justin Trudeau era, such as the consumer carbon tax and digital services tax, he should now abandon another dumb idea — electric vehicle mandates.
Under the federal government’s EV mandate, 20% of all new car sales in Canada next year must be battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell or plug-in hybrids.
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The big three automakers have advised Carney that achieving that level of market penetration next year is unrealistic, given that in April, sales were just 7.5% of the market.
Brian Kingston, head of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, one of several auto industry executives who met with Carney on Wednesday, said to reach the 20% target, the industry would have to pull about one million new gas-powered vehicles off the market.
That would limit consumer choice, increase delivery times and drive up costs for Canadian consumers at a time when our auto sector is already under siege from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Canada.
The only way the federal government can boost EV sales, given their higher prices compared to gas-powered vehicles, is to revive its incentive program, giving up to $5,000 in public subsidies to EV buyers whose incomes are already above average.
Between 2019 and January 2025, when it suspended the program, the Trudeau government doled out $3 billion in subsidies to EV buyers.
During the federal election, the Liberals said they would revive the subsidy at a time when some provinces, with their own subsidy programs, were considering revising or abandoning them.
Meanwhile, under Trump, the U.S. is ending both EV subsidy programs and sales mandates, making their continuation in Canada even more unrealistic.
If the Carney government is unwilling to abandon these bad ideas, at least lower the mandate of 20% next year to a more realistic figure, as well as mandates that 60% of new car sales must be EVs in 2030 and 100% in 2035.
Given the long history of economic disasters caused by governments picking winners and losers in the marketplace, the Carney government should know better.
Kingston says after meeting with Carney, he’s “cautiously optimistic” the government will repeal the sales mandate for 2026. Let’s hope he’s right.
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