Liberal Minority Government 2025 - ???

[brihard]

Let's see if I'm on the right track about EVs and China.


The Liberal government pushed hard for Canada switching to EV'S, including attempting to ban gas vehicle sales by 2035. (In many cases people who didn't pledge the jump to EVs were vilified as climate deniers [drawing from holocaust denier themes] but that's a different story.)

Canada's infrastructure to switch to all EV's is no where near ready.

From mining and refining critical minerals (lithium, cobalt, rare earths) to battery manufacturing, China controls most global production capacity and dominates the supply chain

Even if Canada mines its own minerals, nearly all refining and processing must go through Chinese facilities (creating a refining chokehold)

Canada risks swapping dependence on imported oil for dependence on Chinese controlled minerals and components.

Any Chinese export restrictions, political tension, or supply disruption could halt Canada’s EV industry overnight.

Chinese government-supported corporations have quietly bought stakes in mines and processing operations worldwide, consolidating control.

Canada and its allies currently lack the large-scale refining and battery manufacturing infrastructure to compete or operate independently.

Much of China’s refining is powered by coal, meaning EV production indirectly relies on high-emission energy sources (Making Canada's attempts to paint ourselves as climate change leaders hypocritical).

Weak labour and environmental standards in Chinese supply chains undermine Canada’s “green” and “ethical sourcing” image.

As Canada commits deeper to EV adoption, Beijing gains greater influence over a critical part of Canada’s economy and energy transition.

The more Canada pushes “clean technology” without domestic capacity, the more control shifts from Ottawa to Beijing.

We want Canada to rely on EV's and we want China to control practically all aspects of it?

Can’t say you’re bang on for every single point (you might be; I’m just not sure) but in general I largely agree. With that said, the walk back on the EV mandate has already started, and that’s good. As you say, domestic infrastructure and supply chains are nowhere near ready.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Can’t say you’re bang on for every single point (you might be; I’m just not sure) but in general I largely agree. With that said, the walk back on the EV mandate has already started, and that’s good. As you say, domestic infrastructure and supply chains are nowhere near ready.

AI needs and EV needs are going to be massively competing with each other going forward.
Until we start cranking out new compact nuclear reactors like m&m’s, I just do t see EV’s flipping over to 50% market share anytime soon.

 

[Altair]

Let's see if I'm on the right track about EVs and China.


The Liberal government pushed hard for Canada switching to EV'S, including attempting to ban gas vehicle sales by 2035. (In many cases people who didn't pledge the jump to EVs were vilified as climate deniers [drawing from holocaust denier themes] but that's a different story.)

Canada's infrastructure to switch to all EV's is no where near ready.

From mining and refining critical minerals (lithium, cobalt, rare earths) to battery manufacturing, China controls most global production capacity and dominates the supply chain

Even if Canada mines its own minerals, nearly all refining and processing must go through Chinese facilities (creating a refining chokehold)

Canada risks swapping dependence on imported oil for dependence on Chinese controlled minerals and components.

Any Chinese export restrictions, political tension, or supply disruption could halt Canada’s EV industry overnight.

Chinese government-supported corporations have quietly bought stakes in mines and processing operations worldwide, consolidating control.

Canada and its allies currently lack the large-scale refining and battery manufacturing infrastructure to compete or operate independently.

Much of China’s refining is powered by coal, meaning EV production indirectly relies on high-emission energy sources (Making Canada's attempts to paint ourselves as climate change leaders hypocritical).

Weak labour and environmental standards in Chinese supply chains undermine Canada’s “green” and “ethical sourcing” image.

As Canada commits deeper to EV adoption, Beijing gains greater influence over a critical part of Canada’s economy and energy transition.

The more Canada pushes “clean technology” without domestic capacity, the more control shifts from Ottawa to Beijing.

We want Canada to rely on EV's and we want China to control practically all aspects of it?

China owns 80 percent of the rare earth minerals production on earth.

Everything from phones, to EVs to F35s needs those rare earth minerals.

And it's not like rare earths are in fact, rare. Canada has a lot, the USA does too.i believe Canada is top 10 in the world for rare earth reserves. But the problem with rare earths is that they are not concentrated in clusters. They are scattered in small quantities in multiple locations, and it's the methods to extract them are deeply polluting. This leave China in a good spot because they don't give a damn about strip mining and polluting lakes and rivers with toxic mineral runoff. And they aren't priced particularly high because of how China floods the market. You want rare earths in Canada, you need to subsidize it, drop any environmental regulations and prepare to mine for a few years before the deposit is spent and repeat the process.

When America launched its trade war the Chinese banned exports of rare earths to the USA and the USA cried uncle real fast.

So yes, China dominates the EV market, and unless we want to subsidize our rare earth industry and create environment dead zones, that's not going to change. China dominates the market because the cost to extract these minerals is not something we particularly want to do. It's like the Philippines dominating the import of other nations trash, sure, they own the market, but why the hell would we want to compete with them? That said, technology is changing to make it less environmentally harmful, but it's not really there yet.

So this talk about letting the Chinese dominate the or gain influence over our industries, respectfully, what do we do? Stop buying phones? Don't buy the F35? Don't buy subs or ships or phones? Everything high tech we buy has Chinese fingerprints all over them.

So I find it highly hypocritical to be saying don't buy or build cars,EVs, whatever, because it supports China. Everything high tech we buy supports China.