COLUMN: Think Again – Time to scrap the federal EV mandate

I don’t enjoy filling up my car. Gas prices seem to always be going up, which means that gas is a big part of my monthly budget.

So, am I thinking about switching to an electric vehicle (EV) anytime soon? One might think that I’d be tempted by the prospect of cheaper fuel bills. After all, electricity in Manitoba is cheaper than gas.

However, I’m sticking with a gas-powered car for the foreseeable future. It’s not that I’m ideologically opposed to the concept of EVs, but there are many reasons why I’m not making the switch anytime soon.

First, the purchase price of an EV is about 25 per cent higher than the price of an equivalent gas-powered vehicle. Even with government incentive programs that partially reduce the EV price, I’d still have to put quite a few kilometres on an EV before I make back the extra money that I paid for the vehicle.

Speaking of driving many kilometres, EVs have only a limited range before they need to be charged. If all I planned to do was drive the EV to Winnipeg and back, charging it wouldn’t be a huge problem. But if I want to do a longer road trip, I will need to find multiple charging stations along the way.

This is easier said than done. Last year, CBC Marketplace tested twelve different EV charging stations. They ran into problems at seven of them. These included everything from problems completing a payment to charging stations not working at all. Marketplace also found that electricity prices fluctuated wildly from station to station.

Add to this the fact that an EV car’s driving range drops dramatically in cold weather. Since we have at least six months of cold weather in Manitoba, EVs need to be charged even more frequently during those months. Simply put, it makes sense for me to stick with a gas-powered vehicle. It’s a rational consumer decision that most other Canadians have also made.

Unfortunately, the federal Liberal government thinks that it knows better than me what type of vehicle I should be driving. The current federal EV mandate states that in 2026, 20 percent of all vehicles sold in Canada must be electric, with that target rising to 100 per cent by 2035.

However, we are nowhere close to hitting that target. Last year, these so-called zero-emissions vehicles made up only 13.8 percent of all vehicle sales. Here in Manitoba, it was a paltry 4.9 percent. The only way we are going to hit the federal government’s EV target is by enacting punitive measures that would cripple our automotive sector. This is unwise at the best of times, but it’s downright foolhardy when you consider the tariff threats our country currently faces.

As for the argument that EVs are better for the environment than gas-powered vehicles, it’s important to remember that EV battery production, particularly lithium mining, has a profoundly negative environmental impact. Add to this the fact that in provinces such as Saskatchewan and Alberta, much of their electricity is produced by coal and natural gas. In other words, charging EVs in some provinces has a significant environmental footprint.

The time may come when EVs will be everyone’s car of choice. However, we should let the market decide when that will happen. The moment that government starts getting involved by picking winners and losers, we run into all sorts of additional problems.

If Prime Minister Mark Carney really wants to turn the page from his disastrous predecessor, he needs to scrap the EV mandate now. Let Canadians decide for themselves what vehicle they want to drive.

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.