Friday, May 16, 2025
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada on top of the world
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
        • Provincial COVID Misery Index
        • Beyond Lockdown
        • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
        • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Inside Policy
  • Libraries
    • Columns
    • Commentary
    • Papers
    • Books
    • Video
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada on top of the world
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
        • Provincial COVID Misery Index
        • Beyond Lockdown
        • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
        • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Inside Policy
  • Libraries
    • Columns
    • Commentary
    • Papers
    • Books
    • Video
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

This is the end of the road for electric-vehicle subsidies: Heather Exner-Pirot in the Globe and Mail

While low-income earners tend to benefit from the carbon tax, EV incentives only favour the wealthy.

March 21, 2024
in Energy, Energy Policy, Latest News, Columns, In the Media, Heather Exner-Pirot
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
This is the end of the road for electric-vehicle subsidies: Heather Exner-Pirot in the Globe and Mail

This article originally appeared in the Globe and Mail.

By Heather Exner-Pirot, March 21, 2024

When the Alberta government announced its 2024 budget at the end of February, one item in particular raised eyebrows: a new registration fee of $200 on electric vehicles, beginning in January, 2025.

The justification was simple: EVs don’t pay fuel taxes when they are charged at home, which they often are. EVs are also, on average, heavier than their combustion engine counterparts, and thus, on average, more damaging to roads. Absent a clear usage metric by which to charge EV drivers for their share of road maintenance costs, an annual flat fee would be imposed.

The response, as with so many of Alberta’s policies, was predictable. The governing UCP was criticized for being unfair and ideologically driven with a policy that is just another instance of the province stymying climate action. Never mind that Saskatchewan began charging a fee in 2021, or that more than 30 U.S. states charge a similar fee, ranging from US$50 to US$225, including perennially progressive California. But the fee was seen by many as an attack.

It is worth reflecting on how a completely reasonable user fee could be met with so much skepticism and disdain. At the root of it is a culture around EVs and their owners that sees them as environmentally conscious, social progressive citizens who should be lauded and supported. The most regressive policy in the country – the suite of EV subsidies – has somehow been branded its most virtuous.

Now the tide is turning. I suspect EV incentives will soon reach the end of their road.

I’ve got no quarrel with EV owners and makers, and aspire to have one of my own. But if I bought one today my fellow taxpayers would be obliged to pay for a good portion it. In Canada the federal government will cover $5,000 of the purchase cost of most EV models, and several provinces will absorb a few thousand dollars more.

According to a 2022 study by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, the equivalent carbon tax for such a subsidy – the amount that is being paid to avoid emissions – would be $355/tonne of GHGs in Alberta and Saskatchewan and a whopping $964/tonne in Quebec. There are a multitude of ways to reduce emissions that cost less than applying our limited resources to EVs instead.

But the government support does not stop there. Ottawa has put in place a $680-million Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program to build out a network of charging stations until 2027. Several provinces offer incentives, usually of a few hundred dollars, for home EV chargers. And the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates the cost of announced governments supports for EV battery manufacturing to be $43.6-billion over the next 10 years.

The primary beneficiary of this generous support has not been the environment, but EV drivers, the demographics of which are predominantly middle-aged, white men earning more than $100,000 year. EV drivers are also much more likely to own their home and have a garage, an increasingly privileged position in Canadian society. Let us not begrudge anyone their EVs. But don’t ask the college student with a 2006 Civic to cover the costs of the wear and tear on the roads.

Fuel consumption levies are not perfectly correlated to road usage but they are very important sources of revenue to cash-strapped municipalities and provinces. In most places they fund a variety of infrastructure and public needs, including mass transportation – all the more reason EV owners should pay their fair share.

The federal Liberals are under fire for their carbon tax, which is looking increasingly politically untenable. But as climate policy it is superior to the suite of EV subsidies in almost every way: cheaper, fairer, more transparent and progressive. While low-income earners tend to benefit from the carbon tax – as wealth redistribution policy it is pretty effective, even if the impact on emissions is thus far slight – EV incentives favour the wealthy.

This is not a made-in-Alberta argument. Quebec made its own EV announcement in its 2024 budget this month: it plans to lower and then eliminate EV incentives by 2027, citing the program’s high costs alongside its limited impact on emissions. Many in Europe are doing the same. Germany ended its EV subsidy program abruptly in December as it struggled to balance its budget as required under law.

EV subsidies will continue to come under attack because their policy flaws are clear. There are dozens of cheaper ways to reduce carbon emissions, but almost none as regressive.

Heather Exner-Pirot is the director of Energy, Natural Resources and Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Source: The Globe and Mail
Previous Post

Canada’s Online Harms Act is a blast from an illiberal past: Daniel Dorman in the Western Standard

Next Post

An urgent agenda for Canada in a “Cold War 2.0”: George S. Takach for Inside Policy

Related Posts

Welcome to the post-progressive political era: Eric Kaufmann in the Wall Street Journal
Social Issues

Welcome to the post-progressive political era: Eric Kaufmann in the Wall Street Journal

May 16, 2025
Spike in church arsons puts reconciliation at risk: Ken Coates and Edgardo Sepulveda for Inside Policy Talks
Domestic Policy

Spike in church arsons puts reconciliation at risk: Ken Coates and Edgardo Sepulveda for Inside Policy Talks

May 16, 2025
Legacy on Trial: Revisiting Macdonald and Diefenbaker
Fathers of Confederation

Legacy on Trial: Revisiting Macdonald and Diefenbaker

May 15, 2025
Next Post
An urgent agenda for Canada in a “Cold War 2.0”: George S. Takach for Inside Policy

An urgent agenda for Canada in a “Cold War 2.0”: George S. Takach for Inside Policy

Newsletter Signup

  Thank you for Signing Up
  Please correct the marked field(s) below.
Email Address  *
1,true,6,Contact Email,2
First Name *
1,true,1,First Name,2
Last Name *
1,true,1,Last Name,2
*
*Required Fields

Follow us on

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

  • Inside Policy Magazine
  • Annual Reports
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy

© 2023 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Economic Policy
      • Justice
      • Rights and Freedoms
      • Assisted Suicide (MAID)
      • Health Care
      • COVID-19
      • Gender Identity
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • AI, Technology and Innovation
      • Media and Telecoms
      • Housing
      • Immigration
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Competition Policy
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Israel-Hamas War
      • Ukraine
      • Taiwan
      • China
      • Europe and Russia
      • Indo-Pacific
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • North America
      • Foreign Interference
      • National Defence
      • National Security
      • Foreign Affairs
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • CNAPS (Center for North American Prosperity and Security)
    • The Promised Land
    • Voices that Inspire: The Macdonald-Laurier Vancouver Speaker Series
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada on top of the world
    • Justice Report Card
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Double Trouble
    • Digital Policy & Connectivity
    • Managing Indigenous Prosperity
    • Defending The Marketplace of Ideas
    • Reforming the University
    • Past Projects
      • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
      • The Transatlantic Program
      • COVID Misery Index
      • Speak for Ourselves
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
      • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Inside Policy
  • Libraries
    • Columns
    • Commentary
    • Papers
    • Books
    • Video

© 2023 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

Lightbox image placeholder

Previous Slide

Next Slide

Share

Facebook ShareTwitter ShareLinkedin SharePinterest ShareEmail Share

TwitterTwitter
Hide Tweet (admin)

Add this ID to the plugin's Hide Specific Tweets setting: