“Net-Zero Tyranny”

The saga of Bombardier, once a symbol of Canadian pride, is a sobering one. Joseph-Armand Bombardier, who founded the company in 1942, was a great Canadian inventor and entrepreneur. But over time, the company that bears his name morphed into the poster child for corporate welfare in Canada, becoming utterly dependent on using its outsized political clout to browbeat successive governments into funneling them perpetual taxpayer largesse. The results have cost Canadians more than $4 billion in direct costs alone; distorted and disfigured our economy at the expense of other sectors not so favoured; and sowed unhelpful regional divisions to boot.

On Thursday, the federal and Ontario governments announced that they will be doling out an estimated $5 billion in corporate welfare to Honda, so the auto giant can build an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant and manufacture EVs in Ontario.

This is the third such deal in Ontario, following similar corporate welfare handouts to Volkswagen ($13 billion) and Stellantis ($15 billion). Like the previous two deals, the Honda deal comes at a significant cost to taxpayers and will almost certainly fail to create widespread economic benefits for Ontarians.

Enormous investments in EV technology shook the automotive industry in both Canada and the U.S. this week. Honda promised to spend $15 billion in Ontario on Thursday morning. Toyota unveiled new investments in Indiana that afternoon, bringing its total spending on EVs in that state to $8 billion US.

“In Canada, our target is that 100 per cent of all light duty cars and passenger truck sales be zero emission by 2035,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Honda announcement in Alliston, Ont. “As a great Canadian once said, that is where the puck is going and that is where we’re going to be.”

But the surge in investment comes as the underlying EV industry remains at a crossroads. Growth forecasts have plateaued, charging infrastructure has not kept pace and electric vehicle prices have pushed the cars out of reach of many consumers.

This is a CBC PROPAGANDA piece for the Liberals.

…The deal, expected to be announced within a week, involves a multibillion-dollar commitment by Honda for new facilities to process cathode active materials, build batteries, and assemble battery-powered vehicles — making southern Ontario a key hub of company’s EV manufacturing plans in North America. The Canadian government would subsidize a portion of the capital cost.

…The Honda investment comes at an anxious moment for the auto sector, with consumer adoption of electric vehicles playing out slowly in some regions because of high prices and a shortage of charging stations. Tesla Inc. is cutting more than 10% of its global workforce, Chinese producer BYD Co. reported a sharp drop in deliveries of electric vehicles in the first quarter, and other automakers have delayed EV investments.

Count on the Trudeau government to be wrong and wasteful.

h/t Mauser

The rest of Europe, Remainers like to tell us, is forging ahead into a glorious green future while Brexit Britain is stalling, the government backsliding one by one on its net zero commitments.

It is hard to square that narrative with what’s really going on across the channel. In March, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, registrations of new electric vehicles plummeted by 11.3 per cent. In Germany – the grown up country that’s supposed to show childish Britain how it’s done – the drop was even more precipitous at 28.9 per cent.

Canadians may need to recharge their appeal to owning an electric vehicle.

According to a new survey by AutoTrader, a national automotive marketplace, interest in EVs softened for the second consecutive year despite increasing inventory levels.