Doug Fordimports amid rising concerns that cheap cars could saturate the Canadian market and undercut Ontario’s EV manufacturing sector, along with the billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies to support it.
Along with the federal government, Ontario has announced billions of dollars in public money to reinvigorate the province’s auto manufacturing sector.“There’s $46 billion of investment in Canada in this specific product class. Electric vehicles, batteries, in their supply chain,” said Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.
Progress, however, has been relatively slow and it could still be years before a significant number of Canadian-made or assembled EVs start rolling off the production line. Those worries sparked a months-long campaign by the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association last year to convince officials from the U.S. and Canadian governments to slap tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles — concerns that are now being echoed by Ontario.