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. Vehicle ownership and manufacturing are a huge part of the Canadian economy. For most people, the purchase of a vehicle is the second-largest single investment of their lives, after that of buying a home. Statistics Canada reported that of the 26.3 million vehicles registered in Canada in 2022, just over 24 million were light-duty, and only 3 percent (around 723,500) of those were EVs....