Environment Committee on Nov. 24th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bonin.

Mr. Bexte, you have five minutes.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, for being here today. I appreciate it.

Mr. Adams, you mentioned a C.D. Howe report. Do you have access to that report?

[David Adams]

I do.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Could you provide the link to the committee, or provide the material to the committee? Thank you.

You've warned that the transition to EVs can only happen as quickly as consumers are willing to move. It's the old adage of pushing a rope versus pulling a rope. We talk about all kinds of things, like higher upfront costs, lack of charging infrastructure, range anxiety and all these barriers. Whether those are excuses or reality doesn't matter as much as the practicality of today.

We've also heard from dealers that 50% of sales of their inventory are vocational. It means they're work vehicles, vehicles that are used to produce or contribute to GDP. Can you comment on the GDP impact if the right tools for the job aren't available, if this EV standard pushes the dealerships out of inventory balance and they don't have the vehicles that their customers want? What is that going to do to our GDP, which is already in precipitous decline?

[David Adams]

I think how I would answer that question is that the C.D. Howe talks a little bit about that in that report, which I will get for the committee or get the link for the committee. It suggests that if companies have to comply with EVAS, one of the fundamental ways that a company could comply is to reduce the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles. They cite a potential compliance demand reduction of about 400,000 units in the Canadian marketplace.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

What do you think that would do to the price of the remaining units in inventory? Supply and demand dictate—

[David Adams]

That is a supply-and-demand question, obviously. I think it would mean that the cost of vehicles, which is already challenging for a lot of consumers, would go up.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

It's not just the consumers, but tradespeople.

[David Adams]

Yes.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Your plumber is going to have to spend much more for his tools of the trade to come out and fix your toilet in the middle of winter.

You suggested that there's $1.5 trillion already invested in electrification.

[David Adams]

That's globally.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

With that being the case, and on that trajectory, could you comment on an argument that these regulations are just interfering with the natural process that's going to happen anyway if you allow consumer choice to happen? We're going in that direction.

[David Adams]

Yes, that is definitely where the industry is going.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

It could go that way without taxpayer subsidy and just digging deeper into taxpayers' pockets to synthetically manipulate the market.

[David Adams]

I don't think anybody thought this was going to be a straight upward curve. The road to transition is always going to be a bumpy one, with ups and downs.

The challenge is that consumers have been used to incentives, and without incentives, they're not purchasing vehicles in the same quantity that they used to. I'm not denying that EV sales have gone up, but they just haven't gone up to the degree that's required under the EVAS.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Do you think it's saturated right now? Do you think the EV demand is saturated without government subsidies?

[David Adams]

I can't necessarily speak to that. What I can say is that I think the higher you go up the adoption curve, the more difficult it is to switch people into a different vehicle. Early adopters are prepared to pay anything for the latest technology, undergo any inconvenience—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Absolutely. Windows, iPhone, take your pick. I appreciate that.

I think somewhere along the line here, with plug-in hybrids and the EV standard.... There's an arbitrary requirement that they must have a rather large plug-in range before the internal combustion engine kicks in to carry on. I think that significantly impacts the choice of vehicles available to consumers, especially tradespeople who might want to consider a hybrid. Could you comment on that?

[David Adams]

I'm not sure I entirely understand the question, but I think the best solution for consumers and tradespeople is to have the broadest availability of vehicles to suit their needs.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

The broadest selection.... The perfect is the enemy of the good, I think, in this case. It's not to say we shouldn't be ambitious and shoot for the moon in our ambitions, but we should be realistic in our expectations.

Do you have any closing comments?

[David Adams]

I just think that some of the comments that have been made.... We're not against electric vehicles. Our members make electric vehicles. We support electric vehicle adoption.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bexte.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I cede my time. Does anybody else want the two seconds?

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

You're done, but thank you for offering, Mr. Bexte.

Mr. Fanjoy, the floor is yours for five minutes.