I appreciate that, Minister, but it appears that the answer is no, that there's nothing that's really changed in the process.
To go on, Northvolt—a $7-billion EV battery plant in Montreal—delayed construction for a strategic review. For those who don't know what that means in the business world, that means, “We're looking at whether or not to go ahead or to sell it.” That's generally what a strategic review means. Umicore—a $2.7-million component plant in Kingston, Ontario—halted construction. Ford's $1.8-billion EV expansion in Oakville was scrapped to make pickup trucks. Ford lost $1.3 billion in the first quarter of this year on EVs. They estimate they're going to lose $5 billion this year.
Globally, Stellantis, Ford and Volkswagen, in areas where there isn't massive government subsidies, are scaling back their plants. They're scaling back their plants because the sale of EVs dropped dramatically in Europe—by over 50% in Germany. In Canada we're only at 11%. Are you and is your government still going to proceed with these plants when it's clear that people in the market aren't buying EVs and, in Germany alone, there are 100,000 EVs in inventory that can't be sold?