Dan McTeague is President of Canadians for Affordable Energy.Another day, another calamity for the Liberals’ attempt to turn Canada into a global Electric Vehicles (EV) superpower: General Motors has just announced that they’re ending production of Bright Drop electric delivery vans at their assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. According to GM Canada’s President, Kristian Aquilina, "These Bright Drop vans are a specialized electric delivery van for commercial customers and, quite simply, we just have not seen demand for these vehicles climb to the levels that we initially anticipated.” She added, “This has nothing to do with tariffs or trade. It's simply a demand and a market-driven response.".BERNARDO: Disarming good people does not make bad people harmless — It makes good people helpless.Let’s repeat that, for all of the Boomers in the back: This has nothing to do with tariffs or trade! It's simply a demand and a market-driven response!Translation: The Big Bad US isn’t to blame for this! Who is? The consumers, at home and abroad, who have no interest in buying this product, even when they’re being forced!Of course, this should come as no surprise to anyone who has driven along the 401 and noticed the incredible number of unsold BrightDrop vans sitting at the Ingersoll plant. In fact, I predicted this week’s move last March, along with Chrysler’s recent mothballing in Brampton, in a video filmed just outside of the plant..It really isn’t that complicated. These vans were built for a market that simply doesn’t exist.The Ingersoll plant had previously manufactured the extremely popular Chevy Equinox, but in 2022, GM announced plans to transition to producing these electric vans, with expected buyers including “FedEx, Walmart, DHL, Verizon, and other companies,” according to CBC.But that market never materialized. And since GM hasn’t announced any plans to move production of any other vehicle lines there, the plant will be idled indefinitely, leaving their 1,200 employees out in the cold..RUBENSTEIN: Anti-Semitic bigotry is now 'fashionable' in Canada.“It's the worst-case scenario," said Ingersoll mayor Brian Petrie. "We're a small community. We're only 13,000 people. When it comes to the smaller businesses, the grocery stores, the coffee shops, everybody can feel when that plant's not running.”The plant is Ingersoll’s largest employer and accounts for more than 10% of the municipal tax base.This Southwestern Ontario town is going to be hit extremely hard. They would have been better off if the plant hadn’t switched to EVs..Of course, similar events are happening all over. GM had previously delayed EV production at its plant in St. Catharines. Honda announced last May that it would be pushing back its planned electric vehicle and battery production at its facility in Alliston, Ontario. Ford, after previously announced delays in EV production at their plant in Oakville, later announced that they were scrapping their planned EV production entirely..GOLDBERG: The Liberals want an election — but they won’t get one .Meanwhile, GM moved production of light-duty Chevy Silverado trucks from Oshawa to Fort Wayne, Indiana, earlier this month, leading directly to about 750 jobs lost at the plant and hundreds more downstream. And Stellantis announced that it would be moving its Jeep production from Brampton to Illinois, at the cost of 3,000 jobs in the Ontario plant and “as many as 10,000 more for related auto-parts suppliers,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Not all of these moves can be directly tied to EVs, but they all depict an industry that is weak, in danger of falling further still, and hobbled in no small part by the EV mandate. Our automotive industry was coerced by the Liberal government to divert investment from internal combustion engine vehicles — like the Chevy Equinox in Ingersoll — towards loss-making EV production. These job losses are the result..And it isn’t just the jobs that are going down the sinkhole, it’s the tax dollars as well. The Liberal government gave Stellantis over $1 billion in 2022 to modernize its Ontario plants and facilitate EV production. And they, along with Doug Ford’s government in Ontario, gave more than $500 million to GM for retooling and job training.Those governments are half-heartedly bellowing about getting that money back, or forcing these companies to invest in Canadian jobs. Honestly, don’t hold your breath on that one..OLDCORN: Ding dong the witch is dead, Gondek’s exit gives Calgary hope.The EV mandate, and the subsidies attached to it, were originally sold as an investment in the future of the automotive industry. But it’s an investment that is tanking. Meanwhile, unemployment is rising, GDP is declining, and Canada is facing increasingly dire economic forecasts. This can’t go on. Too many Canadians in towns like Ingersoll are too reliant on these plants to make ends meet.For the good of all of us, Mr. Carney, end the EV mandate.Dan McTeague is President of Canadians for Affordable Energy.
