The new tax credit can stack with a 30 percent tax credit for the equipment costs of EV manufacturers, which was announced last year. The government projects the credit will cost $1 billion CAD by 2035.
A bit of a waste of money.
Why are we flipping the bill for companies who are going to turn a profit making these vehicles?
If we want to make a greater difference on the environment (and society), why not spend that billion on e-bike/micromobility rebates, since they make more of an impact than EVs.
Our return on investment would also be considerably higher with a national e-bike incentive program.
Edit: spelling
We’re spending them for the jobs, not the environment. We want this industry, which will be relevant for at least a generation to be entrenched here. I used to fret about what we get for this tax we pay them until I understood better how money is created, destroyed and how that affects inflation. In a case like this, where a factory or 10 will be built in a place where there’s idle or low paid labor, where there aren’t significant resource constraints to building those factories, we should just print this money and give it to them because it won’t cause inflation. Giving them a tax exemption, printing the money and spending it where the tax would have gone otherwise is equivalent.
We’re spending them for the jobs, not the environment.
That would make more sense, and one can only hope that works out.
Pretty much the same reason why Quebec offers high subventions for R&D. This in turn attracts new companies and specialized employees. What the province pays in subventions they get back in attractive jobs.
Or spend that money investing in electrified puclic transit.
