The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Prime Minister Mark Carney, recognizing the need to support our auto sector, has scrapped Canada's electric-vehicle mandate. Guest columnist, senior Fraser Institute fellow Ross McKitrick, writes that unfortunately, close inspection shows that he merely rephrased the policy but the effect remains the same. Following the pattern set by his Memorandum of Understanding with Alberta, in which Mr. Carney sounded like he was green-lighting a new pipeline without actually doing so, the new auto policy repeals the mandate in name only. Mr. Carney is withdrawing the law requiring 20 per cent of new cars sold in Canada in 2026 to be EVs, rising to 100 per cent by 2035. But he has introducing onerous new greenhouse gas emission standards on gas-powered cars "to achieve a goal of 75 per cent EV sales by 2035 and 90 per cent EV sales by 2040." So it is still an EV mandate, just with a slightly slower implementation schedule. President Donald Trump is trying to steal our carmaking operations through hostile trade actions. But the real threat to our auto sector is home grown -- forcing companies to specialize in a segment of the market that buyers are not interested in.
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