Good morning, everyone.
I want to thank you for inviting us to testify. My colleague Gabriel Giguère and I are very pleased to be here to discuss certain policies adopted by the Canadian government for environmental reasons and the anticipated effects these policies will have on the economy, particularly on the Canadian families, workers and consumers who make it up.
Under the pretext of protecting the environment, the federal government has passed a series of new laws and put in place a host of new standards and regulations that have a direct impact on the daily lives of Canadian consumers, workers and taxpayers.
Among the measures put forward, one of the most costly for consumers has now been put on hold, while the federal government takes the time to revise it. I am referring here to the electric vehicle availability standard or, as it is more commonly known, phasing out the ban on gas-powered vehicles. This standard, widely considered by Canadians to be unrealistic, would mean gradually restricting the sale of gas-powered vehicles until they can no longer be purchased by consumers over a 10-year horizon.
Add to that the fact that the electric vehicles replacing them would cost much more to purchase, around $6,720 more for a sedan or $11,490 more for an SUV, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer's calculations. When it adopted a ban like this, the federal government failed to consider the capacity of provincial electricity grids to address the resulting increase in demand for electricity. According to some estimates, a measure like this could make demand for electricity shoot up from 7.5% to 15.3% and would require up to $294 billion to upgrade the grids and generation facilities of the country's power companies.
To be clear, this $294 billion in additional spending will be passed on to Canadian businesses and families connected to the electrical grids, who will pay higher fees if the ban on the sale of gas-powered vehicles moves forward.
Canadians are more than just consumers. They are also workers and taxpayers, to name just two other labels that are put on them.
Over those years, adopting a policy to cap emissions in the Canadian energy sector has been particularly harmful, and it offers no concrete benefits for Canadians. Whether a tonne of CO2 is emitted by the Canadian energy sector or when Bombardier is manufacturing a new aircraft at its Mirabel facility, its effect remains the same. However, at the moment, the government is treating these two activities differently, capping one and giving a free pass to others.
In the global energy market where our companies operate, neither the Canadian federal government nor Canadian companies have an impact on overall energy demand. Every barrel of Canadian oil or every cubic metre of Canadian gas that remains in the ground as a result of legislation or regulation is systematically replaced by an equivalent from other producing countries, such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela, which are not subject to the strict Canadian regulatory environment.
Policies like this stunt the growth of Canada's energy industry and come at a significant cost. They prevent well-paid jobs from being created coast to coast to coast and, by extension, they deprive Canada's federal and provincial governments of significant tax revenues. In other words, this type of policy only has costs but delivers no benefits.
While the current government has already taken some good steps to reinvigorate the Canadian economy by putting a hold on some of the most damaging policies in recent years, we can only hope that it will go further and use this opportunity to reform the broken approval process that's preventing us from getting major projects done. If Bill C‑5 helps a bit, it would be better for Canada to have an approval process that is quick by default rather than by exception.
Thank you for your time and attention.