The new Canadian Liberal Dream

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU. CHISU, CD, PMSC, FEC, CET, P. Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East We are at the beginning of 2023, just finishing celebrating the New Year's arrival and hoping for a brighter future. Then, as if the burdens of the housing crisis, high mortgage rate and a faltering economy were not enough, the liberal government has announced a new dream objective for greening themselves even more. The liberal government guru on the environment, Environment Minister Steven Guilibeault, has proposed new regulations recently, under which one-fifth of all passenger cars, SUVs and trucks sold in Canada in 2026 will need to run on electricity. By 2030, the mandate will hit 60 per cent of all sales and by 2035, every passenger vehicle sold in Canada will need to be electric. Wow!!? Ironically enough, Guilbeault's parliamentary secretary Julie Dabrusin said during the recent announcement that the new target is "about making sure that Canadians have access to the vehicles they want." Are these guys for real? This is a clear demonstration of the dream world this liberal government is living in. For the record, geographically, Canada is the second largest country in the world with a relatively small population of just 36 million souls. We have long roads to cover and a cold climate to combat. Are they hoping that leviathan driven global warming and climate change will alter these realities? Unless they do, we will need reliable car batteries and charging points to power the vehicles. Where will they come from? Solar or wind energy? These people have lost their mental compass, infatuated as they are with the new global reset, initiated by the World Economic Foundation (WEF), promoted strongly from elsewhere, and certainly not made in Canada or for Canada. In addition, manufacturers or importers who don't meet the sales targets could face penalties under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act through a phased-in approach. Very encouraging for entrepreneurs and people who are really working and not just talking nonsense. In the first six months of 2022, sales of fully-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles made up just 7.2 per cent of new car registrations. For all of 2021, the proportion was 5.2 per cent. Clairvoyants like Cara Clairman, president and CEO of Plug'n Drive, a non-profit organization (Paid for by Whom?) that encourages electric vehicle use, said the toughest part of promoting the change from gas-powered vehicles is availability. "Long waiting lists are definitely discouraging consumers that are ready to make the switch," she said. "And if we all agree that we're in a climate emergency, we need to help consumers make the switch as soon as possible." Other, more thoughtful people, like Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, said the federal government should be building up necessary infrastructure for electric vehicles before regulating sales. He suggested that Canada's infrastructure is not on track to support a growing fleet - and those who will be driving the new cars. "The vehicles are coming, but we need a supercharged effort to help marketing, and actually make that purchase and make it easy, convenient and accessible," he said. Under the draft regulations, to be formally published soon, the government proposes tracking the sales by issuing credits for vehicle sales. Fully electric cars and trucks would be worth a bigger credit than plug-in hybrid versions, though the government acknowledges that plug-in hybrids will likely remain in demand in rural and northern areas. How considerate of them! The mandate fulfils a 2021 Liberal election promise. It's the first major set of regulations to come out of an emissions reduction plan the government published last April. That plan is Canada's broad road map toward hitting its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors to a level in 2030 that is 40 to 45 per cent below what it was in 2005. Passenger vehicles account for half of all road transportation emissions and about 10 per cent of Canada's total emissions across all sectors. Before this latest move, Canada already had targets for electric vehicle sales. However, they were not enforceable, and the government wasn't successfully compelling car companies to ramp up the number of electric vehicles available for sale. Kingston said the government's approach seems intended to "regulate away global supply chain challenges" - but he said that is not realistic, since a completely new supply chain is being created for electric vehicles. "You can't regulate away shortages, and it simply doesn't work like that," he said. The new policy would decouple Canada's regulatory regime from the United States, Kingston warned, and the impending penalties for vehicles sold outside of the prescribed federal targets could raise the overall cost of operating in Canada. Clean Energy Canada, an advocacy group (hostile to nuclear power) housed at Simon Fraser University, close to la la land, celebrated the latest government announcement but warned that the penalties will need to be legally enforced, "a time consuming process" that will create complexity and uncertainty. Welcome to the newly crafted 'democracy'. So, autocracy is in the works eh… With this hysteria in the making, and no regard for the realities of life we are surely heading for new dark ages led by a "necromonger" government. Joy to the world, and Happy New Year!