Canada scraps electric vehicle mandate after consumer backlash

OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – After backlash from consumers, Canadian premiers, automakers, and industry groups, the Canadian government more or less scrapped its total Electric Vehicle (EV) 2035 mandate.

In a February 5 press conference, Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney said instead it will heavily incentivize Canadians to buy EVs and put in place tougher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for model years 2027 to 2032.

The government will then put in place goals to have an EV adoption rate of 75 percent by 2035, with a lofty goal of 90 percent adoption by 2040.

“The more stringent emission standards will enable the government of Canada to repeal the electric vehicle accessibility standard,” he told reporters.

The new rules essentially kill the 2035 total EV mandate put in place by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. However, the new rules still heavily promote EVs, which do not do as well in the cold Canadian climate and are far more expensive for the average family to purchase.

The government will be offering a five-year, $2.3 billion EV Affordability Program that will cost taxpayers heavily. This money will give rebates to new EV and plug-in hybrid purchases.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith fought tooth and nail against the Trudeau EV era mandate, promising she would fight with “everything” at her disposal what she called an “unconstitutional” new federal government rule.

On February 6, Smith praised news of the EV mandate being dropped, saying she was “pleased to see Prime Minister Mark Carney listen to automakers, industry leaders, Albertans, and common-sense by scrapping the federal EV mandate once and for all.”

Smith said she supports “consumer choice” and said her province will be watching closely to ensure any new emissions standards do not harm consumers.

“Over the last decade, Ottawa has imposed what we have called the ‘nine bad laws’ that have damaged Alberta’s economy and hurt Albertans and Canadians alike,” she said.

“The EV mandate was one of them. While we are pleased the federal EV mandate has been scrapped, we will be closely monitoring the effect of the new emissions standards.”

Trudeau’s EV mandates have also been called out by the automotive industry in Canada. The Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association said in response to the new EV mandate that forcing people to buy EVs will “disproportionately impact households living in rural and northern communities that may have lower access to public charging infrastructure.”

As reported by LifeSiteNews in 2024, a noted fiscally conservative think tank warned that a Trudeau’s EV mandate was an unrealistic fantasy that would cause massive chaos by threatening to collapse the nation’s power grids.

The reality is that electric cars cost thousands more to make and buy, are not suited to Canada’s cold climate, offer poor range and long charging times (especially in cold weather), and have batteries that take tremendous resources to make and are hard to recycle.

LifeSiteNews reported that a 2022 study found that electric vehicles pollute at a rate far higher than their gasoline or diesel-powered counterparts.

A June 2017 peer-reviewed study by two scientists and a veteran statistician confirmed that most of the recent global warming data have been “fabricated by climate scientists to make it look more frightening.”

The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy have also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.