Lawrence Herman – The Coming War Over Chinese Electric Vehicles
To: Canadian trade watchers From: Lawrence Herman Date: February 15, 2024 Re: The Coming War Over Chinese Electric Vehicles Standing back and looking at today’s global trading picture, one can see that it’s not pretty – destabilized by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, by the unsettled multilateral situation at the World Trade Organization and by innumerable regional trade disputes. […] Brian Livingston – Ottawa’s Blind EV Optimism
To: The Hon. Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change From: Brian Livingston Date: February 14, 2024 Re: Ottawa’s Blind EV optimism By 2035, only zero-emission cars and light trucks can be sold according to the federal government’s recently finalized mandate regulations. That leaves just 11 years and reasonable forecasts of production and sales make clear that […] Ottawa’s EV timeline is way too optimistic – Financial Post
The federal government recently finalized regulations for its “zero-emissions vehicle” mandate. The mandate requires sellers of light vehicles (passenger cars and light trucks) to sell a rising minimum of zero-emissions vehicles — basically, electric vehicles or EVs — every year, culminating with 100 per cent EVs in 2035, just 11 years from now. Reasonable forecasts of production and sales make clear that Ottawa’s timeline is unrealistic.
The mandate states that new light vehicles must be at least 20 per cent EVs in 2026, 60 per cent in 2030 and, as mentioned, 100 per cent in 2035. The theory is that these requirements will guarantee a market for EVs and therefore encourage imports, construction of domestic manufacturing…
Dadson, Waitzer – Who Should Set Provincial Energy Policy?
From: Aleck Dadson and Ed Waitzer To: Canadian regulatory agency observers Date: February 5, 2024 Re: Who Should Set Provincial Energy Policy? Who gets to decide the direction of energy policy in Ontario? The Ontario government itself, led by the Minister of Energy? Or the specialized regulatory agencies that adjudicate rate setting and establish rules […] Time to Reboot: The Federal ZEV Mandate Requires Flexibility
The federal government has proposed regulations requiring the sale of a minimum numbers of Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) in Canada (20 percent of all light vehicles in 2026, ramping up to 60 percent in 2030 and 100 percent in 2035). The flip side of this requirement is that the sale of internal combustion engine (ICE) […] Hodgson, Smallridge – Unlocking Indigenous Financing: Are Loan Guarantees the Answer?
From: Glen Hodgson and Diana Smallridge To: Reconciliation observers Date: January 17, 2024 Re: Unlocking Indigenous financing: are loan guarantees the answer? The federal government’s recent Fall Economic Statement included a commitment to establish a loan guarantee program to foster Indigenous equity ownership in major natural resource sector projects. This offers clear recognition that significant amounts of Indigenous financing […] Carbon pricing needs a makeover – Globe and Mail
Support for Canada’s federal carbon tax for the control of greenhouse gas emissions appears to be crumbling after Ottawa’s decision in the fall to exempt home heating oil from the tax until 2027. Polling by the Angus Reid Institute indicates that two-thirds of Canadians support a further exemption for all home heating fuels, including natural gas, and many (42 per cent) want the carbon tax abolished altogether.
Yet exempting natural gas from the carbon tax, or eliminating the tax altogether, would actually harm most of the households who support the idea. That is because the proceeds from the tax are pooled and then rebated to households in the jurisdiction in which they are collected (the federal carbon tax applies…
Charles DeLand – Plan B, Please, for Federal Carbon Policy
To: Canadians Concerned about Climate Change From: Charles DeLand Date: January 3, 2024 Re: Plan B, Please, for Federal Carbon Policy Suggestions that Canada’s rising emissions prove federal carbon policy is not working miss the mark. The country’s energy efficiency has, in fact, improved considerably under the carbon tax, but rapid population growth means more emissions. Now, unfortunately for […] Charles DeLand – Alberta Needs a Stable Policy Approach to Power
From: Charles DeLand To: The Hon. Nathan Neudorf, Alberta Minister of Affordability and Utilities Date: December 19, 2023 Re: Alberta Needs a Stable Policy Approach to Power Background It’s all electricity all the time in Canada these days as we come to grips with the green transition and its electric vehicles, its electric heat pumps […] Putting Together a Holiday Dinner Basket
We at the C.D. Howe Institute wish you a happy holiday season. We also wish we could wish you an affordable one. We asked how big a bite a holiday dinner for ten would take out of the average weekly wage of a worker in Canada, Australia, the UK and the United States. The painful answer is […] Leonard Waverman – Why Government Electric Vehicle Mandates Won’t Work
From: Leonard Waverman To: Canadian automotive observers Date: December 18, 2023 Re: Why Government Electric Vehicle Mandates Won’t Work On Dec 31 2022, the federal Liberal government mandated that in 2035, 12 years from now, no internal combustion engine cars and light trucks can be sold in Canada. This ban takes place gradually, beginning at 20 percent of electric […] Has Ottawa destroyed its own carbon tax? Canada needs a climate Plan B – Globe and Mail
Suggestions that carbon pricing is not working because Canada’s emissions have kept rising miss the mark, as a large chunk of the increase is due to rapid population growth. The country’s energy efficiency has, in fact, improved considerably under the carbon tax introduced by the federal government.
But unfortunately for carbon price supporters, Ottawa has directly contradicted the principle underlying the tax. In late October, it decided to selectively pause its application to heating oil, a fuel used primarily in homes in Atlantic Canada, ostensibly on affordability grounds, but largely viewed as a cynically political move. Quite logically, provincial leaders immediately asked for exemptions covering fuels used in their regions…