Evidence of meeting #32 for Science and Research in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was china.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
You said it's a small portion. How many EVs are being sold in Canada now?
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Accelerate: Canada's ZEV Supply Chain Alliance
I believe some of our other panellists today indicated that the 49,000 Chinese EVs would be about 3% of the total vehicle market. Based on last year, I think that's about 30% of the EV market.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
It is 30% of the EV market. Do you consider that to be a small portion? It seems that 30% is a lot coming from just one country.
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Accelerate: Canada's ZEV Supply Chain Alliance
As I said, a selective exposure to Chinese EV production is going to help in the near term, as long as it's paired with support for EV production here.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
Are you confident that the current deal would encourage EV production here?
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Accelerate: Canada's ZEV Supply Chain Alliance
No, I don't have an opinion on how the current deal encourages EV production here. What we see in this current deal, and in the auto strategy following it, is support for critical materials production in Canada. I'm happy to talk about that wider supply chain upstream and where the battery materials investments have come from in the last year.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
Of course, the value chain of mines, materials, minerals and manufacturing—all things Canada is endowed with—is being blocked by federal government red tape.
How is importing Chinese-made EVs that are either fully assembled or nearly assembled...? Which parts of the value chain are Canadians really capturing of this 30% of the market?
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Accelerate: Canada's ZEV Supply Chain Alliance
In those imported vehicles, we're not capturing the value chain. They're not built here.
Having exposure to and availability of advanced technology is important for developing a market that we would like to see eventually filled with Canadian materials. That's taking time to get online. We need to build the market and support Canadians' access to EVs. This deal does that. At the same time, we can build the capacity to build those products, those batteries and battery materials, here.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
The Liberals recently announced their costly EV rebate program. It subsidizes EV sales in Canada to the tune of billions of dollars, regardless of whether the vehicle is built here or abroad. As you know, most EVs sold in Canada are produced outside of Canada.
Do you think this policy effectively forces Canadian taxpayers to fund billions of dollars to foreign auto manufacturers and foreign jobs, while Canadian auto workers and industry pay the price? Is there a better way of doing this?
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Accelerate: Canada's ZEV Supply Chain Alliance
With the EV affordability program, I believe that this temporary measure, with a clear, visible wind-down, will help Canadians access the advanced technology that is an important demand for our critical materials value chains.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
The time is up.
We will now proceed to MP Deschênes-Thériault for five minutes.
Please go ahead.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to follow up on the last question from my colleague Ms. McKelvie. After all, this is the Standing Committee on Science and Research.
Mr. Breton, what do you think Canada's research priorities for the electric vehicle sector should be over the next five or 10 years?
Are there any blind spots that need further research?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Electric Mobility Canada
I'm going to start with something that isn't given enough consideration, and that's the cold climate EV research sector. We live in a cold country. Back when I was in government, I signed an agreement between California and Quebec to work together on research and development. Obviously, California's climate is very different from Canada's. This is an extremely important aspect. Research is being done on off-grid charging infrastructure, and that's extremely important. Charging infrastructure, and even electricity, is not available everywhere. We need to look at that.
Of course, battery chemistry research has been going on for years in Canada. We have been among the world leaders. I would say that we need to invest a lot more in battery recycling. I talked about that earlier.
Let's also talk about the critical minerals strategy of the governments of Canada, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. Right now, everyone seems to have forgotten an extremely important aspect, which is the critical minerals used in the batteries currently in circulation. We're talking about billions of dollars of investment in these batteries. I don't know if you're aware, but in Ontario, Li-Cycle went bankrupt. In Quebec, Lithion was dismantled. Right now, EV batteries that are at the end of their useful life are exported to the United States for recycling. Critical minerals have an extremely important geostrategic and geopolitical impact, and we give them to the Americans for a pittance. I think that's a mistake, and we need to fix it as soon as possible.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you.
Mr. Kabbara, I'll ask you the same question about research.
Chief Executive Officer, The Transition Accelerator
In 2024, we did a collaboration with Accelerate on their battery innovation road map, and we articulated their 50 action items as Canada doubles down on its leadership in battery innovation.
On research more specifically, the example to give is Dalhousie, where we have a potential opportunity. There was a battery research centre established there. We think there is an opportunity to do that in Waterloo, as well as in BC. We articulated specific universities where you could establish battery lab infrastructure that can be accessed by some smaller companies working on battery innovation.
I think that is one thing that would be very helpful to the ecosystem.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Do you have anything to add, Mr. McKinnon?
Interim Chief Executive Officer, Accelerate: Canada's ZEV Supply Chain Alliance
Thank you for the question.
Battery innovation is one of our strengths in Canada. Working to capture value from innovative researchers in battery and battery materials across the country is a significant and important next step in gaining benefits for an EV production industry here. Mr. Kabbara described this strategic approach effectively. Our battery innovation road map details some of the ways we can work to support the financial ecosystem around battery production, physical assets for R and D, skills and labour, and the scaling up of IP protection.
I've spoken a bit about IP protection today. Any deal with any trading partner related to EV or battery production here in Canada needs to consider IP protection.
Thank you.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you.
Mr. Breton, at the Standing Committee on Science and Research, we have to be rigorous. In our discussions with the witnesses in the previous panel, there was some exaggeration and hyperbole. I'd like to give you an opportunity to correct a few things.
Do you want to comment on the previous testimony?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Electric Mobility Canada
Okay.
People seemed to be saying that EVs are spy vehicles. In fact, not just electric vehicles are connected. Today, all vehicles are connected, whether gas-powered or electric. That's the first thing to mention. I got the feeling that people were saying that if you have a gas-powered vehicle, you don't have a problem and that no one will be able to track you. They seemed to be saying that in an electric vehicle, everyone can track you and know where you are. That is completely false.
I would also add that this is maybe beside the point. Perhaps we need to update our data protection and consumer protection policies to ensure that people have real protection.
I think our laws are outdated, given the technological innovations and advances in communication. That goes far beyond Chinese EVs.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Thank you. Your time is up.
We will now go to MP Blanchette-Joncas for two and a half minutes.
Please go ahead.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Breton, the zero-emission vehicle incentive program was suspended by the Liberals in January 2025, only to be reinstated in February 2026, but with a gradual reduction.
What effect has that had on the adoption of electric vehicles in Quebec, for example, or on investment decisions in the sector?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Electric Mobility Canada
The watchword of 2025 was “chaos”. Whether on the U.S. side, with President Trump, or on the Canadian side, automakers didn't know where they stood.
On January 10, 2025, the Canadian government said that it was running out of money for the rebate program, and on January 13, 2025, there was no more money. People had three days to turn around. It was very complicated for dealers, manufacturers and consumers.
What made things a little more complicated was that people said that the rebate was going to come back. There were people waiting for the rebate to come back to buy an electric vehicle. The market severely bottomed out for months because of disruptions from both Canada and Quebec, it must be said, that lasted a month.
I was asked what would happen if the rebate program came back. I said that it would have a kind of rebound effect. In other words, instead of having an adoption curve that gradually increased, it would end up being a roller coaster that would make it extremely hard for people to predict what was going to happen. Then add to that gas prices of $1.70, $1.80 and $2.00 a litre, which has wreaked a lot of havoc in Canada and around the world.
I spoke with a car dealer this morning. He told me that he was soon going to run out of electric vehicles on his lot, because sales have greatly increased. A GM dealer told me he couldn't even order electric Chevrolet Silverados. Even though the demand is huge, GM refuses to process his orders and allocate some to him to sell.
Earlier, Brian Kingston said that the demand wasn't high enough yet. Actually, the demand is there, but GM doesn't want to deliver electric pickup trucks. I'm concerned about that.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
I am concerned about the instability of public policy. One year, the government agrees. Then Chinese vehicles are blocked by 100% tariffs. Another year, it loses political face and then removes the carbon tax. Ultimately, it is reinstating credits for electric vehicles.
I won't be fooled into thinking that it doesn't have an impact on inventories, on policies for adapting to new technologies and on investments in the electric vehicle sector.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Electric Mobility Canada
The key word is predictability. People tell me that they would like to have certainty. Basically, only two things are certain: death and taxes.
That said, let's talk about predictability. If we can at least have predictability, whatever a government's public policies, and we know what's going to happen in advance, things will go better.