Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Sam Hersh and I'm the clean transportation program manager at Environmental Defence, which is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization. We work with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
Our position is clear: Canada must maintain a strict EV availability standard. Weakening or pausing these regulations would harm consumers, compromise climate goals and jeopardize Canada's competitiveness in the global transition to clean transportation. It would also benefit an auto industry that has resisted progress for decades.
The standard has a simple purpose: to make electric vehicles available and affordable in every region of Canada. Before the standard, Canadians faced chronic shortages, and this was not because Canadians didn't want EVs. It was because automakers restricted the supply by prioritizing high-margin gasoline trucks and SUVs over more affordable electric models.
The EVAS changes that by ensuring that Canada receives its fair share of EV supply. When EVs become available, the benefits are substantial. Some modelling shows that, with a strong EVAS, Canadians would save $45 billion in fuel costs by 2035, about $1,750 per EV driver per year, because electricity is far cheaper and more stable in price than gasoline.
The standard is also one of the most effective and least expensive climate policies in Canada. It would reduce emissions by 69 megatonnes by 2035, which would be the equivalent of taking 15 million gas-powered cars off the road. There are also huge health benefits, and these benefits would quickly diminish if regulations were weakened or delayed.
Despite what the auto industry claims, now is the right time to move forward with an EV standard. Recent sales declines were driven by a pause in federal and provincial rebates and by short-term uncertainty about the future of the EVAS itself. This is exactly why the regulation includes extensive, built-in flexibility, including early action credits, a three-year averaging period, credit banking, limited PHEV contributions and credits for infrastructure investments. The EVAS was designed to absorb short-term shocks. Pausing 2026 compliance obligations was unnecessary and created more uncertainty, not less.
Automakers have proven time and time again that voluntary measures are not enough. Legacy automakers have opposed or delayed every major environmental and safety regulation for decades, as someone on the previous panel mentioned, from seat belts to fuel efficiency standards to earlier electric vehicle policies. In Canada alone, they have held more than 200 lobbying meetings specifically about the EVAS with federal officials since the standard was introduced and are running coordinated campaigns to weaken or eliminate the EVAS. All of this aligns with a long-standing strategy: Preserve the high-profit gasoline truck business model for as long as possible. A status quo without the EVAS overwhelmingly benefits the automakers, not Canadians in urban, suburban or rural areas.
If Canada retreats from the EVAS now, EV prices will remain high, affordable models will remain scarce and charging infrastructure investment will slow. We would also risk losing ground to international competitors that are surging ahead in global sales. Meanwhile, U.S. automakers would gain an advantage in the remaining gasoline vehicle market just as they are aggressively lobbying for slower transition times.
Environmental Defence Canada urges the committee to maintain the EVAS with only limited recalibration. We recommend, in a submission that we put forward to this committee with other organizations, reinstating a 2026 requirement that reflects the actual market share, resuming the trajectory of requirements no later than 2027 and avoiding new flexibility mechanisms that dilute the standard.
The EV availability standard is not the problem; it's the solution. It protects consumers, strengthens Canada's competitiveness, improves public health and enables climate progress without multi-billion-dollar government subsidies. Weakening it now would be a costly mistake. A rigorous standard is the best way to ensure that Canadians have cleaner and more affordable vehicles and that Canada remains a leader in the clean transportation economy.
Thank you.
I look forward to your questions.