In August, we reported how Canadians were showing minimal support for federal mandates around electric vehicle regulations in the country.
The numbers were not adding up, first of all. For example, British Columbia has the highest rate of electric vehicles on the road—but that still means just 3% of vehicles on the road are electric currently.
And, when financial incentives drop, so do purchases of EVs. Can Canada really afford to sustain such heavy subsidization given our current debt commitments?
There’s also the fact that our national charging infrastructure is nowhere near prepared to support that many EVs active on the road.
“It’s been clear for some time that … EV mandates are unrealistic,” Barry Penner, a former B.C. Minister of Environment and Attorney General who now functions as Chair of the Energy Futures Institute, stated last month.
A recent Ipsos poll of British Columbians revealed strong opposition to the unrealistic mandates, finding that 56% oppose the government mandates versus just 34% who support—and that gap widened since last year (53% vs 38%).
Moreover, those strongly opposed to the mandates outnumber those strongly in favour by more than a three-to-one ratio (36% versus 10%).
The result of all this bad publicity? Prime Minister Mark Carney has paused the mandate for 60 days.
Liberal leader Carney this month cited the “extreme pressure” that Canada’s auto sector is currently facing as one major factor in the decision to postpone the EV mandate, which initially would have demanded 20% of auto sales be electric by 2026 and 100% by 2035.
Only one province was on pace to hit the 2026 target, Quebec, with Statistics Canada data revealing that B.C. reported 20% of new vehicle purchases to be electric or hybrid—but hybrids didn’t count under the original mandate.
Most provinces are in the single digits: PEI at 8%, Ontario at 7%, and Saskatchewan at less than 3%, for example.
Carney says that, while the mandate is suspended, it will be reviewed and possibly altered to be more flexible for automakers.