Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said his government has no plans to bring back an electric vehicle (EV) rebate to the province.
Ford and his Progressive Conservative Party cancelled the previous government’s $14,000 EV rebate shortly after his party was elected in 2019.
The statement was made during a press conference on Wednesday where Ford was promoting the construction of Highway 413 across Halton, Peel and York regions.
While taking questions, Ford said the reason he has no plans to reintroduce the rebate is because it only benefits millionaires, as they are the ones that can afford EVs.
“No, we aren’t bringing it back, I’m not going to give rebates to guys that are buying one hundred and some odd thousand dollar cars, millionaires,” Ford said.
While Ford clearly does not want to increase EV adoption in the province (the data clearly shows they work), he does want automakers to come to Ontario to build them.
At a separate news conference earlier in the week on Monday, the Premier said the province will become a leader in the EV industry, both for battery and vehicle manufacturing.
“We’re going to be the number one manufacturer of electric battery operated cars in North America. We’re not only going to manufacture the batteries here, but also manufacture the cars,” Ford said. (via CBC)
He believes that will happen thanks to the “Ring of Fire”, a large mineral deposit in northern Ontario that contains cobalt, lithium, manganese, nickel, graphite, and copper, all key elements in EV batteries.
You can watch Ford’s comments in the video below, which will start with the EV rebate question.
