Premier Doug Ford praised Prime Minister Mark Carney’s auto strategy at a funding announcement for health care workers.
“We need to make our auto sector more competitive,” Ford said at Humber Polytechnic on Feb. 5. “We need to attract new investments to build more vehicles in Canada, and we need to create good-paying auto jobs on factory floors across the province.”
In a statement from the Prime Minister’s office, the federal government announced a new auto strategy on Feb. 5 focused on mitigating the effects of damaging U.S. tariffs by expanding trade relationships with other countries and strengthening the sector to withstand global economic shocks.
However, in late January of this year, Premier Ford struck a different tone, urging Canadians to boycott Chinese-made electric vehicles after Prime Minister Mark Carney made an EV trade deal with China.
“We have been urging the federal government to end its electric vehicle mandate, which makes our auto sector less competitive, undermines investments and threatens jobs,” Ford said.
The main focus of the new strategy, according to the federal government’s statement, is to position Canada as a global leader in EV production.
“We are making strategic decisions and generational investments to build a strong Canadian auto sector, where Canadian workers build the cars of the future,” the Prime Minister said in a statement.
Ford echoed the prime minister’s sentiments, like a media-coached, unemotional hockey player after an exciting game.
“It's a plan to build an economy that is more competitive, more resilient, more self-reliant, so we can stand up to tariffs, economic uncertainty and anything else that comes our way,” the Premier said.
Then the Premier directed his ire toward his true foe on Team America.
“President Trump continues to take aim at Ontario workers”, Ford said. “He's doing everything he can to move Canadian auto jobs south of the border and put Canadian workers out of a job.”
In a bid to fight for auto workers in Ontario and across Canada, Ford reiterated the importance of a unified front.
“Our economy and sovereignty are under attack,” he said. “We're going to keep working as a united, strong team Canada to protect our workers, protect their jobs and their communities, our businesses.”
Several measures from the federal government announcement were introduced to support EV sales and production, including allocating $3 billion from the Strategic Response Fund, eliminating the EV Availability Standard and bringing back consumer rebates.
Ford identified ways the provincial government is supporting EV manufacturing.
“Of course, we continue to support the manufacturing of electric vehicles right here in Ontario as part of the record $46 billion investments that we've made attracted to the province over the past several years,” he said.
The federal government’s statement identified new goals in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, setting EV sales targets of 75 per cent by 2035 and 90 per cent by 2040.
Consumer rebates include discounts on EV purchase or lease of up to $5,000 on cars with free trade agreements with Canada on cars of $50,000 or less. There is no cost cap on autos made in Canada to receive the rebate.
When asked about the auto sector, the premier didn’t pull any punches.
“We have to stop being 100 per cent reliant on the U.S.," he said. "It's a shame the president doesn't want to work with us.
“I've said over and over again, when it comes to the auto sector, the auto pact, one goes as far back as the 1960s, and he wants to unscramble the egg, that's the wrong approach," Ford said.
He also questioned the U.S. administration’s reasoning regarding the auto sector.
“Common sense says, you'd want a partner with consumers like Canadians that buy over 400% more vehicles off the U.S. than they sell anywhere else in the entire world,” Ford said.
