I believe all major parties were in support of or calling for a tariff, including the Conservatives, and a poll from a month or two ago showed Canadians broadly support tariffs on Chinese EVs.
I’m not sure how this specifically is an issue that works better for the Liberals.
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Not sure why we have to implement tariffs here. Getting people to adopt EVs is hard enough, making the cost more palatable would spur adoption and maybe get automakers here to think about making sensibly priced models.
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Not sure why we have to implement tariffs here. Getting people to adopt EVs is hard enough, making the cost more palatable would spur adoption and maybe get automakers here to think about making sensibly priced models.
The Chinese EVs are heavily subsidized by the Chinese government, leading to them being sold under cost. Without the same subsidies, there’s nothing North America automakers can make that would compete, which would actually push those automakers backwards.
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Western automakers spent decades trying to either kill the electric car or bury their head in the sand and innovate in the slowest possible manner.
Tesla, at least, kickstarted some of the automakers into entering the market with better options, however, its been half-assed.
They fell behind the tech battle and now need the government to implement tariffs to protect their interests.
Should that market be protected? probably. It's a big sector, offers some strategic value, foreign subsidies, and there is some argument with the coming cold war with china; but, it sucks we have to blame the government or a foreign power for our automakers' incompetence
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I heard an interesting explanation as to why we got where we are with the rail strikes. Decades ago the O&G industry lobbied to have limits on continuous working days changed. It made sense, because when you go away to a work camp, 2 weeks on/1 week off saved a lot of time lost to travel. So then the transport industry decided they wanted looser rules, too. If it's good enough for work camps, why not drivers/train engineers? It didn't help the safety argument that doctors are worked ragged by government as well. The door is open now.
This inevitably led to where we are today, with companies squeezing every minute out of them, as businesses are known to do. A bus or truck or train driver may have a legally required 8 hour break, but that's between shifts. They still have to get home, eat, shower, prep for the next shift etc. How many hours sleep is that? Not enough. Train drivers may use all their hours up in Vancouver, but they live in Calgary.
So when you hear the union complaining about scheduling issues, it's this kind of thing. Can you blame them? Not only are these safety issues, they also eat into time off. So to lose the right to strike to have these issues improved, well, it all seems a bit too far on the business friendly side of it. Government allowed this to happen, and now they are forcefully standing behind it. I think what really needs to happen is the government must put in safer limits on transport hours. But that means more cost increases, so I can see why they are shy on it.
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I heard an interesting explanation as to why we got where we are with the rail strikes.
You can really blame Hunter Harrison IMO. He really pushed precision railroading which is a super lean and just on time operations philosophy. It got adopted by every major rail in the US and Canada. Railroads love it because it moves more freight and employees less people but it sucks for workers and customers.
You can really blame Hunter Harrison IMO. He really pushed precision railroading which is a super lean and just on time operations philosophy. It got adopted by every major rail in the US and Canada. Railroads love it because it moves more freight and employees less people but it sucks for workers and customers.
Sure, but that's what capitalism does. Maximizes. Can you blame them? The only backstop is government regulation.
Sure, but that's what capitalism does. Maximizes. Can you blame them? The only backstop is government regulation.
For sure. They finally started actually regulating truck drivers with ELDs about 5-7 years ago. Paper logs were falsified in a big way and it did end up increasing cost and changing freight lanes but it was needed.
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For sure. They finally started actually regulating truck drivers with ELDs about 5-7 years ago. Paper logs were falsified in a big way and it did end up increasing cost and changing freight lanes but it was needed.
It was needed, but that industry needs to be overhauled in a big way.
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It was needed, but that industry needs to be overhauled in a big way.
Yeah, long haul trucking is an interesting spot. Getting harder and harder to hire people into it and the big hope of totally automated trucking that seemed like it was close still feels years away. I don't deal with trucks as much as I used to but man some of the stories you'd hear were wild. I think some of it was they had not spoken to another person in 5 hours though. I think Coast to Coast AM has gone downhill because truckers have the internet to entertain themselves now.
There was one couple though who had a small dog and lived in their truck basically. Both drove and they'd just flip every mandate change and keep that truck rolling 18 hours a day. They told me a story that when they were getting their truck serviced they met three other drivers in the waiting area and chatted a little and then about 20 minutes later the mechanic came out and was screaming at the guys. Apparently they all drove in the same truck and had cut out a hole in the cab floor to #### in so they didn't need to stop. I am still not 100% sure they were lying to me about t.
Not sure why we have to implement tariffs here. Getting people to adopt EVs is hard enough, making the cost more palatable would spur adoption and maybe get automakers here to think about making sensibly priced models.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cappy
Western automakers spent decades trying to either kill the electric car or bury their head in the sand and innovate in the slowest possible manner.
Tesla, at least, kickstarted some of the automakers into entering the market with better options, however, its been half-assed.
They fell behind the tech battle and now need the government to implement tariffs to protect their interests.
Should that market be protected? probably. It's a big sector, offers some strategic value, foreign subsidies, and there is some argument with the coming cold war with china; but, it sucks we have to blame the government or a foreign power for our automakers' incompetence
I wonder if the Chinese can get around the tariff in Canada by shipping over "kit cars" for final assembly in Canada and still maintain a good pricing advantage? I recall that Mercedes shipped the Sprinter van as a kit to the US for assembly in order to get around the chicken tax.
Who the hell is going to pay $80k+ for a Model 3? lol
Presumably they'll have to use supply from the US or German plants for Canada, now. They had been using Shanghai because they had surplus capacity and couldn't sell them all in China, and the US tariffs them so they couldn't dump them stateside. Now Tesla will have to find somewhere else to unload them.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday the federal government will reduce the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada after a historic surge that some experts say has fuelled unemployment among immigrants and young people.
The government loosened restrictions during a severe post-COVID labour shortage — a decision that led, in particular, to a spike in the number of low-wage temporary workers.
Trudeau said employers in high unemployment areas — places where the unemployment rate is six per cent or higher — will not be able to hire low-wage temporary foreign workers (TFWs), with limited exceptions for "food security sectors" like agriculture and food and fish processing as well as construction and health care where acute staffing shortages still exist.
In another reversal, the government said employers will no longer be allowed to hire more than 10 per cent of their total workforce through the TFW program.
As well, low-wage TFWs will also be limited to one-year contracts, down from the current two.
