Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Let me start by picking up on something that was raised by Mr. Lewis because I think the record should reflect the fact that our government's track record on EVs is actually to have instituted a $5,000-tax credit for EVs worth $50,000 or less. That was very deliberate because we've heard the narrative that electric vehicles are effectively a plaything of the rich, and that's not where we see the market going with things like the Leaf and the Volt. We're trying to empower middle-class Canadians to access cars at an affordable rate. That's why our tax credit is in place at that level, and at that level only.
I think it's lamentable when we were talking so much about tax credits—and many of you have commented on the need to ensure that we're incentivizing the Canadian market—that we don't have a provincial counterpart any longer, because the premier of the province of Ontario, Mr. Ford, has decided to remove that tax credit. I wanted the record to reflect that.
I'm going to pose some questions to the folks from Unifor: Mr. Wark and Mr. DiCaro.
On first reading, the build back better legislation initiative talks about empowering the vehicles to be bought in the United States, but particularly that the final assembly of the vehicles occur in unionized shops. I'm speaking as somebody who represents a lot of good unionized workers here in Toronto, and they're concerned about the health of the labour movement, as they rightfully should be.
At first instance you'd think that's a positive initiative, but can you unpack for me the importance of Minister Ng and Minister Freeland writing pretty stern letters to their counterparts in the United States last December indicating exactly the dramatic consequences of build back better and how it would impact Canadian industry and how it is indeed discriminatory, a term that many of you have used? What would be the impact on unionized labour here on this side of the border? I ask because it is Canadian unionized workers who are first and foremost in our priorities.
Could the folks from Unifor comment on that in about 90 seconds?
Thanks.