Mr. Speaker, Canadians want clean air. Canadians want innovation. Many Canadians, especially in my home province of British Columbia, are eager to embrace electric vehicles. I come from one of the most beautiful and most creative parts of the country. We are deeply committed to preserving that beauty, and we strive to find the technologies that will protect it.
I am genuinely excited about the future of electric vehicles and the role they can play in reducing emissions and driving technological progress. I am also excited about hydrogen fuel cells, renewable fuels and many other breakthroughs revving up across the transportation sector, as well as the technologies that have not even been conceived yet.
When innovation is allowed to flourish, Canada wins. Variety, they say, is the spice of life. On our vast roads and rugged terrain, Canadians want and need a full range of options, all the gears in the gear shift, so to say, from EVs to hybrids, sustainable fuels and even increasingly efficient internal combustion engines. I am so glad to see our entrepreneurs and our market delivering just that.
What Canadians do not want and absolutely cannot afford are heavy-handed mandates from Ottawa that jack up costs, punish small businesses and stall out consumer choice in the fast lane of central planning. That is not welcome in my community.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Liberal government's so-called zero-emission vehicle sales target does. It is being branded as a target, but it is a 10-year road to a ban, the “no more gas vehicles” ban, a regulatory sledgehammer disguised as a goal. Backed by fines and compliance quotas, this is not about helping the environment; it is about pushing all Canadians to the outcome the Liberal government wants, whether they like it or not. That is why our Conservative motion today puts the brakes on this policy and puts Canadians back in the driver's seat. We are calling on the government to immediately give Canadians the freedom to choose vehicles that meet their needs at a price they can actually afford.
I have been listening to the auto sector. The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association has been sounding the alarm. It knows what the Liberals refuse to admit: that this plan is out of step with the reality on the ground.
EV adoption has been growing, and that is a good thing, but it has happened because of consumer choice, smart incentives and infrastructure investment, not because of government strong-arming. Instead of encouraging choice, the government is taking it away. Federal and provincial rebates are being scaled back. Charging infrastructure is still patchy, especially in rural and northern communities. People in apartments and townhomes cannot plug in.
Canadians want clean transportation, but they also want vehicles that fit their budgets, their geography and their daily lives. That is why the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association has warned that this Liberal policy is unrealistic and will lead to significant cost increases for consumers. The mandate forces car dealers to carry large, expensive EV inventories that often do not match local demand, especially in small cities like mine and in rural areas. The burden of compliance, along with penalties for non-compliance, is being downloaded onto dealers. That means it will ultimately find its way to consumers.
The Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association has also raised concerns about supply chain readiness and the speed of transition. A decade may feel like a long time, but in the world of design and in the current context, 2035 is actually quite near. Canada still lacks the domestic capacity to fully support the shift at this speed. The automotive industry in Canada is already coping with tariffs and volatility. It does not need this on top of it.
Under this policy, car companies that sell even one gas vehicle above the Liberal quota could face penalties of up to $20,000 per car. That cost gets passed down straight to the consumer. At a time when groceries are out of reach, mortgages are ballooning and food bank lines are growing, the Liberals want to make vehicles more expensive by design. How out of touch can they get?
This is not just bad for drivers; it is a head-on collision with small businesses. Dealerships, especially in small cities like Nanaimo, are being forced to carry excess or even double inventories. They have to stock expensive EVs that may sit unsold alongside the gas-powered vehicles that are more affordable and more in demand in their showrooms. That is a massive financial burden, and then Ottawa penalizes them if they do not sell enough of the EVs that no one is asking for. That is not a policy. That is a lemon. It is going to hurt the very Canadians the government wants to help.
In the rural parts of my community, people rely on pickups. In northern climates, they need vehicles that can handle snow, cold and long distances without worrying about where they are going to find a charging station. In all of the communities across this great country, people want choice. They want the freedom to choose what works for their family, what works for their job and what works for their wallet. What they do not want is a Prime Minister in the driver's seat deciding what kind of car they are allowed to buy.
Conservatives believe in innovation. We believe in clean technology and we believe in reducing emissions. We also believe in choice and competition, and yes, we believe in common sense.
The demand for electric vehicles is plateauing. It may be that the current economy is creating challenges for affordability. It may be that the demand for electric vehicles has reached its saturation. After years of growth driven by early adopters and government rebates, the market is now cooling because many Canadians simply cannot afford the high upfront costs, do not have access to charging infrastructure or might not be convinced that EVs meet their needs in our climate and geography.
However, rather than adjusting government policy and adjusting course to help Canadians during these difficult times, the Liberals are demanding that we adjust course, that we change our behaviour to suit their needs and desires. They are not responding to market trends. They are trying to manufacture those trends and coerce Canadians with quotas. That is not innovation. That is desperation and control.
We have an opportunity to steer Canada back in the right direction. Let us invest in infrastructure. Let us support a range of clean technologies. Let us let demand grow organically. Let us recognize that there is more than one route to an emissions reduction. Hybrid vehicles, hydrogen power, sustainable fuels and, yes, even better internal combustion engines all have a place on the road to a more sustainable future. Above all, let us listen to the workers who build our cars, the family-run dealerships that sell our cars and the Canadians who drive them every single day.
The Liberal plan is broken. It is unaffordable, it is unrealistic and it is unfair. It is time to shift gears. Let us support this Conservative motion. Let us end the ban, and let us give Canadians back the keys to their own decisions and their own future.
