Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says critics of the Trudeau government’s policy to mandate that all new vehicle sales in Canada must be EVs or plug-in hybrids by 2035 are engaged in horse and buggy thinking.
“Net-Zero Tyranny”
Adam Pankratz: Steven Guilbeault ignores reality with impossible electric vehicle mandate
The Canadian government announced earlier this week that capitalism was no longer of any interest to it. Steven Guilbeault, the enlightened Minister of Environment has decreed that by 2035 internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles must be phased out in favour of electric vehicles (EVs). This dirigiste move flies straight in the face of the principles of a market economy that enable the technology required for the energy transition and will no doubt be rife with unforeseen consequences.
Gas-powered vehicles have become like horses and buggies, says Guilbeault
It’s been a year full of announcements for Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, who has introduced a range of new climate policies and regulations over the last 12 months. Having recently returned from the COP28 global climate conference in Dubai, Guilbeault caught up with iPolitics to reflect on his year and outline his priorities moving forward.
He also chats about what’s next for impact assessment in Canada, why he thinks gas-powered vehicles are the new horse and buggies, as well as what he believes is the high point of his career.
Guilbeault means he sees cars being pulled by horses because electric vehicles are not practical as a replacement for ICE vehicles which will be few and only for the rich in his Brave New World.
His electric vehicle battery died. One year later, he’s still waiting for a replacement
Some car owners looking to replace the battery that powers their Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are frustrated with how long it’s taking to get back on the road.
Mississauga, Ont., resident Atif Harooni bought a new Leaf in 2017 to save money on gas and to take advantage of a $14,000 government rebate for electric vehicles.
“It was good and it all ran well,” Harooni told CBC Toronto in an interview. “I really like driving it and it’s very little maintenance.”
More … GM buys out nearly half of its Buick dealers across the country, who opt to not sell EVs
General Motors said nearly half its Buick dealers took buyouts this year rather than invest in selling and servicing electric vehicles as the automaker’s brands transition to all electric by 2030.
That means GM will end 2023 with about 1,000 Buick stores nationwide, down 47% from where it started the year.
h/t Mauser
Danielle Smith vows to fight Trudeau’s ‘unconstitutional’ plan to ban gas-powered cars
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith made it crystal clear that she intends to fight with “everything” at her disposal what she called an “unconstitutional” new federal government mandate that all new cars and trucks by 2035 be electric, which would in effect ban the sale of new gasoline- or diesel- only powered vehicles after that year.
GUNTER: Another costly Liberal solution to a non-existent problem
Trust the Trudeau government to pick the wrong solution to the wrong problem.
Most headlines about Tuesday’s announcement regarding electric vehicle (EV) sales in Canada had pretty much the same theme: Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced that 20% of all new vehicles sold in Canada “must be” EVs by 2026.
Chris Sankey: Fossil fuels aren’t going anywhere, we benefit too much from them
Over the last eight years we have experienced an unprecedented push from environmental activists to phase out fossil fuels. The Government of Canada seems to think it is possible. During question period in the Senate earlier this year, Sen. David Wells noted that, according to the Liberals, the energy transition “will cost $100-$125 billion per year at least to 2050,” and asked “When Canada only emits 1.5 per cent of global emissions, how does this expenditure make sense?”
Of all top-heavy Liberal climate policies, electric-vehicles mandate is the worst
To meet Canada’s commitment to its Paris Agreement climate goals, the federal government has announced increasingly heavy-handed emissions reduction policies this year. It culminated Monday in the publication of regulated targets for electric-vehicle sales: an EV mandate.
History has shown us time and again that government quotas are no match for the market. The Liberals want to show us one more time why this is the case.
DOCUMENTS: @EnvironmentCa data show @S_Guilbeault claim that gasoline car ban "will help Canadians with the cost of living" is 100% untrue. Net costs to drivers run to billions. https://t.co/m8lt39fwdQ #cdnpoli @BCheadle #disinformation #FactCheck pic.twitter.com/OukJaLDhVb
— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) December 21, 2023
Motor Mouth: The consequences of Canada’s EV mandate
It’s now official. We have, as a nation, joined those other countries banning the sale of internal-combustion-engine-powered light-duty vehicles past the year 2035. Now, never mind that, like last year — when the feds dropped the original draft of these new standards — it appears the Liberals are once again hoping that dropping this rather Draconian new regulation right before Christmas will give them two weeks or so for skeptics’ distemper to dissipate. Or that, as I and many insiders believe, this is most definitely a Quebec-centric dictum — a province where both Liberals and EVs are hugely popular — writ large across the entirety of our fair land.
Charging an EV …
@liberal_party @JustinTrudeau @FP_Champagne @JonathanWNV pic.twitter.com/1HvEvjvU7j
— Kim Allen (@KimKimmer4761) December 19, 2023
h/t Mauser
ANALYSIS: Europe’s Farmer Protests a Warning as Ottawa Looks to Cut Cattle Emissions
As Ottawa eyes Canadian farms and cattle as a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be quelled, the European experience is a cautionary tale.
In Europe, policies that impact farming operations, including the Netherlands’ plan to massively reduce livestock to cut down emissions, have led to widespread protests.
Canada needs hundreds of thousands of public EV charging ports. Who is going to build them?
Most of the people who come to visit Debbie Nightingale’s Ontario farm are lured in by a chance to get up close and personal with her herd of friendly goats. But some visit for more practical reasons: to charge their electric vehicles.
“We have people who come on a regular basis because they know we have these,” Nightingale said, gesturing to the two-port EV-charging station she installed last year with the help of a federal tourism recovery grant.
As part of the federal government’s net-zero targets for the future, it is aiming for all new light-duty car and passenger truck sales to be zero emission by 2035, which will require a nationwide network of public charging ports.
Guilbeault is a lying idiot “Most people gonna charge at home.”
Jesse Kline: Steven Guilbeault’s bad-faith plan to ban gas-powered cars
The Liberals don’t like to characterize their policies as causing potentially irreparable divisions between Eastern and Western Canada. Yet nothing screams “Laurentian elite looking out for their own at the expense of everyone else” quite like the recent press conference announcing the government’s new Electric Vehicle Availability Standard.
ANALYSIS: Cost of EV Battery Replacement May Come as a Shock
As Ottawa mandates selling electric vehicles (EVs) and with an increasing number of offerings for consumers, the potentially major issue of battery replacement remains uncertain.
It’s been said that an EV is its battery and then everything else.
In a video uploaded Dec. 12, automotive journalists Andrea and Zack Spencer of the Motormouth Youtube channel, told the story of Kyle Hsu, a 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 owner who faced a $60,000 bill to replace its battery. That was more than the $55,000 cost of the car brand new.
Dear Ottawa: Mandating electric-vehicle sales is a bad idea
Canadians got a jolt Tuesday when Ottawa released new electric-vehicle regulations. The move, called the “Electric Vehicle Availability Standard,” aims to dramatically accelerate EV sales. Meeting the standard will require EVs to constitute 20 per cent of new vehicles sold by 2026, 60 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035. For reference, EV market share has been less than 10 per cent in recent years. But not complying with the proposed rule risks drawing the ire of regulators – along with potentially hefty fines.
Cory Morgan: Ottawa’s 2035 EV Target Will Be a Costly Policy Failure
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s plan to illegalize the sale of new conventional vehicles in Canada by 2035 is unreasonable, extreme, and will wreak havoc on the Canadian economy.
Despite nearly 10 years of cajoling, promoting, and subsidizing electric vehicles (EVs), over 95 percent of vehicle sales in Canada are still combustion engine models. EVs remain too expensive and impractical for Canadians to embrace. Rather than trying to understand why citizens won’t switch to EVs, the Canadian government is taking the ham-handed approach of forcing the transition, and the consequences of the move will be dire.