Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she is seeking a balance between alleviating economic stress and pursuing Ottawa's security and human rights priorities.
Part of what Carney promised on the campaign trail was to continue to develop Canada’s internal automotive manufacturing supply chains…which include all the necessary materials and components for our own EV’s, right down to the battery technology.
Currently, everything is still in the investment and developmental stages, but the framework is there. Canada has all the rare earth elements to rival Chinese production…we just need to invest in the infrastructure to fully process them. This will take time and money.
Which is why allowing Chinese companies to enter our market at this stage, would derail the entire process. Why make the long-term investment in Canadian made products, when China can supply them for a fraction of the cost, right now? Our own capabilities would die before they have the chance to even get off the ground…and we would become dependent on China, right after declaring independence from the US.
All true, however the consumers of the finished battery cells would be North American EV production, because there’s large scale battery production in the rest of the world. Maybe the EU could import some. Or maybe they’ll just want raw material for their battery factories. But on our end, as far as I’m aware everyone of the auto manufacturers here is cancelling or scaling down their Canadian EV plans. The EV landscape in the US doesn’t look good either with Trump actively working to undermine them. Point being that without considering the Chinese EVs, the investments that haven’t been cancelled yet, already are at risk. I expect investors being fickle as they are, especially during uncertainty and downturns, to cancel further supply chain investments, unless our gov’t steps in. And I think our gov’t should step in but less to prop them up and more to buy these projects and put them under a crown corp that develops these resources. That still leaves us with the problem of what to put those batteries in. Chinese EVs built here could fulfill that role. Any such work should start early so that it can be operational by the time the batt supply chain is up. As for direct imports, those would compete with ICE vehicles built in NA. That poses a risk to Canadian auto manufacturing since we only build ICE. But we do have a problem with auto prices the rest of the economy so the gov’t has to consider that risk vs the risk of layoffs. For example the price of the F-150 used across the construction industry is a cost for the tradespeople working in it. Finally if we consider the worst case scenario where we get mass layoffs due to Trump’s actions, then the high vehicle price problem would become more significant for a lot of people who have their incomes slashed. That’s where cheaper direct imports could help dampen the impact on our car-dependent economy. If I were Carney, I’d probably model these scenarios and if here’s a benefit, set appropriate taxes/quotas on these EVs to achieve it, and change it as needed to match the rest of the economic context. As for new factories, I’d start those yesterday.
From what I’ve heard Canada doesn’t even have an EV industry to protect.
Partially because we allow every decent company that pops up here to be bought out by Americans.
That’s such a big problem…
Part of what Carney promised on the campaign trail was to continue to develop Canada’s internal automotive manufacturing supply chains…which include all the necessary materials and components for our own EV’s, right down to the battery technology.
Currently, everything is still in the investment and developmental stages, but the framework is there. Canada has all the rare earth elements to rival Chinese production…we just need to invest in the infrastructure to fully process them. This will take time and money.
Which is why allowing Chinese companies to enter our market at this stage, would derail the entire process. Why make the long-term investment in Canadian made products, when China can supply them for a fraction of the cost, right now? Our own capabilities would die before they have the chance to even get off the ground…and we would become dependent on China, right after declaring independence from the US.
All true, however the consumers of the finished battery cells would be North American EV production, because there’s large scale battery production in the rest of the world. Maybe the EU could import some. Or maybe they’ll just want raw material for their battery factories. But on our end, as far as I’m aware everyone of the auto manufacturers here is cancelling or scaling down their Canadian EV plans. The EV landscape in the US doesn’t look good either with Trump actively working to undermine them. Point being that without considering the Chinese EVs, the investments that haven’t been cancelled yet, already are at risk. I expect investors being fickle as they are, especially during uncertainty and downturns, to cancel further supply chain investments, unless our gov’t steps in. And I think our gov’t should step in but less to prop them up and more to buy these projects and put them under a crown corp that develops these resources. That still leaves us with the problem of what to put those batteries in. Chinese EVs built here could fulfill that role. Any such work should start early so that it can be operational by the time the batt supply chain is up. As for direct imports, those would compete with ICE vehicles built in NA. That poses a risk to Canadian auto manufacturing since we only build ICE. But we do have a problem with auto prices the rest of the economy so the gov’t has to consider that risk vs the risk of layoffs. For example the price of the F-150 used across the construction industry is a cost for the tradespeople working in it. Finally if we consider the worst case scenario where we get mass layoffs due to Trump’s actions, then the high vehicle price problem would become more significant for a lot of people who have their incomes slashed. That’s where cheaper direct imports could help dampen the impact on our car-dependent economy. If I were Carney, I’d probably model these scenarios and if here’s a benefit, set appropriate taxes/quotas on these EVs to achieve it, and change it as needed to match the rest of the economic context. As for new factories, I’d start those yesterday.