Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government's Department of Industry spent $50 million on electric vehicles in 2023. A total of $1.5 million was spent on American-made electric Ford pickups that cost $96,191 apiece. Expenses totaled $50 million for 778 vehicles, with the 16 made-in -Michigan Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickups being the most expensive, in what turned out to be the largest federal purchase to date under Trudeau’s electric car mandate, per Blacklock's Reporter. The most common purchases were Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrids.In an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the House of Commons, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne disclosed his department outspent all others with $3,934,523 on new zero-emission vehicles last year. Conservative MP Branden Lesli sounded the alarm on the expenditures and requested the figures be released. “With regard to the purchase by government department, agency Crown corporation or any other government entity, how many have been purchased in total?” he said. Champagne had defended spending taxpayer subsidies for the electric vehicle industry on June 7. “We’re winning," Champagne had claimed to reporters on June 7. “We’re in the big leagues.”“We land these mandates,” he bragged. “Stellantis will get done, Volkswagen has been done and others are looking.”“It’s creating momentum for all sorts of investments to come to Canada,” said Champagne. The Budget Office in a report last November 17 Costing Support For EV Battery Manufacturing put subsidies at $50.2 billion including debt charges.Prior to Trudeau taking office, federal spending on costly electrics was restricted to $32,400 or less, per vehicle. Now, an updated federal directive, called Mandatory Procedures For Land Vehicle Fleet Management, requires that all executive vehicles bought by the Government of Canada after January 1 2025 must be zero emission. There is no price cap..Purchases in 2023 included $94,554 for a single Ford E-Transit van by Library and Archives Canada, an $82,780 Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid for the Canada Revenue Agency and three $75,000 Teslas bought by the Department of Fisheries.The Department of Natural Resources in a 2021 briefing note complained zero emission vehicles were too impractical for employees’ use. “It is not realistic at this time,” said the note Fleet Management Renewal Strategy: Information For The Deputy Minister’s Office.“Operational requirements, for example size of vehicles, restrictive range capabilities and safety features, are not entirely met by net zero emission vehicles,” said the note. “Green technology is not readily available.”
