Conservatives plan national campaign against federal electric vehicle mandates
The Conservative leader says his party will launch a national campaign to call on the Liberals to scrap their electric vehicle mandate.
The policy requires 20 per cent of all light-duty vehicles sold in Canada next year must be zero-emission vehicles, rising to 100 per cent by 2035.
Manufacturers that do not meet the target can be hit with a $20,000 penalty, which Poilievre is calling a tax.
The vehicle manufacturing industry says that with U.S. tariffs and the end of government sales incentive programs, it will be impossible to hit the 20 per cent benchmark next year.
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Poilievre says the mandates are ideological and the Tories plan to push for their termination through public events and motions in the House of Commons.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2025.
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Winnipeg Free Press
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- Winnipeg Free Press
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RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES University of Manitoba economics and labour studies associate professor Jesse Hajer says changes made to Manitoba's Rent Assist program under the former Tories need to be reversed in order for the NDP government's homelessness strategy to work. In a report released Thursday for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Hajer, who was on the planning and priorities committee of cabinet while Selinger was in power, noted the Rent Assist shortcomings will make it difficult for the NDP to meet its goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2031. The report calls on the province to reverse changes to Rent Assist made by the previous Progressive Conservative government that discriminated 'between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, by introducing higher benefits for those not' on social assistance. 2015 $806 2016 $852 2017 $877 2018 $912 2019 $947 2020 $982 2021 $1,000 2022 $1,030 2023 $1,080 2024 $1,149 — source: CMHC Rental Market Survey 'Rent Assist is an important benefit with a wide reach in Manitoba,' Hajer said in an interview. 'Low-income Manitobans have been hurt the most by high inflation in recent years, including rapidly increasing rents.' Manitoba's Your Way Home strategy, unveiled in January, relies on moving people from encampments into social housing, while moving those in social housing into the private market. If those being moved out of social housing cannot afford private market rent, the strategy risks housing some while creating homelessness for others, the report says. 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Winnipeg Free Press
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Winnipeg Free Press
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