When Stellantis announced it was shifting Jeep assembly from Brampton to
Illinois, it wasn’t just a loss of auto jobs — it was a warning. As the auto industry undergoes seismic
change, history and goodwill won’t be enough to keep investment in Canada if our policies don’t make staying
here worthwhile.
When Prime Minister Mark Carney recently hit pause on Canada’s EV
Availability Standard (EVAS) as it became clear automakers wouldn’t meet the 2026 sales targets, it
offered a chance to help fix that. Instead of scrapping these requirements, we should make them smarter and
adapt them to create jobs here at home.
Right now, the EVAS, Canada’s primary electric vehicle policy, aims to get more EVs into showrooms, but it
doesn’t consider where those vehicles or their materials and components are made. We could potentially meet our
targets entirely through imports, creating zero Canadian jobs in the process.
That’s a massive missed opportunity.
But the solution is straightforward: keep the EVAS to drive adoption, while adapting it to reward automakers that
build parts of their future EV supply chains here in Canada.
We have the resources, materials, and skilled workers that the North American auto industry increasingly
needs.
Contributors :
Matthew Fortier
President of
Accelerate ZEV
Bentley Allan
Vice President
Future Economy, Transition
Accelerator.
Building Canadian Power in Advanced Battery Materials
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trip to Beijing this week resulted in a trade agreement that will permit up to 49,000 Chinese EVs to enter Canada.
As the Canada Strong Budget (2025) deploys $280 billion in capital investments over five years, Canada’s battery sector is experiencing a rare alignment of political will, infrastructure funding, and market demand.
Accelerate supports the Canada Strong Budget and its measures to develop sovereign supply chains for electric vehicles and batteries
