TORONTO — Doug Ford is pitching Ontario as the next electric vehicle manufacturing powerhouse, seemingly a far cry from the premier who three years ago cancelled incentives for people to buy them.
Where some see contradiction, others see calculated election strategy.
Shortly after coming to power in 2018, Ford’s government scrapped Ontario’s cap-and-trade system, and with it the electric vehicle rebates funded by that program.
He also stopped building charging stations – the provincial transit agency even removed some – and dropped a requirement for new homes to include the wiring for potential EV chargers.
Ford at the time decried the rebates of up to $14,000 as subsidizing purchases for wealthy buyers – and he still does, mostly.
“Before the election I didn’t believe in giving millionaires rebates on over $100,000 Tesla cars,” he said last month. “I just didn’t believe in it. Let’s see how the market dictates.”
In the year after the rebate cancellations, the market for electric vehicles tanked in Ontario. At its highest point, electric-vehicles made up around three per cent of the province’s total passenger vehicle sales. That dropped to below one per cent after the rebate was scrapped.
The introduction of a federal rebate saw Ontario’s electric-vehicle sales begin to climb again. The most recent data from Statistics Canada puts the numbers back to nearly where they were before the provincial cancellation.
But that is still well below levels seen in provinces with their own rebates, such as British Columbia and Quebec, which are seeing electric-vehicle sales of about 13 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.
Electric-vehicle advocates say Ontario can’t be a leader in manufacturing while being a laggard in sales.
Joanna Kyriazis, senior policy adviser at Clean Energy Canada, said a recently announced Ontario auto strategy was more friendly to electric vehicles than she would have expected, but it’s missing the second half of the equation.
“I do think that there’s been a recent shift in the Ford government’s view of electric vehicles, at least on the manufacturing side,” she said.
Ontario’s “Driving Prosperity” plan focuses on repositioning the province’s auto sector to build electric vehicles, as well as establishing battery production here, taking advantage of critical minerals found in the Ring of Fire. It aims to build at least 400,000 electric vehicles and hybrids by 2030.
Ontario has secured investments from big automakers such as Ford and GM to build new electric vehicles at their facilities in the province in the coming years, and the premier is looking to attract more.
“Our government knows it and the auto industry knows it: Ontario is the No. 1 place in the world to build the cars and trucks of the future,” Ford said when he announced the strategy last month.
There is a section on encouraging electric vehicle adoption, but is mostly limited to establishing a Transportation Electrification Council to seek advice on ways to do that. Without more work to encourage domestic sales, most of the electric vehicles eventually produced in Ontario would just be shipped elsewhere, Kyriazis said.
“Producing more EVs in Ontario will not directly translate into more EV sales in Ontario unless there’s more support for consumers to go electric,” she said.
Acting on the manufacturing side but not the consumer side is contradictory, said Daniel Breton, president and CEO of Electric Mobility Canada.
“If Ontario wants to be a leader, it’s not a buffet where you pick and choose what you decide to do,” he said.
“Rebates do make a difference. They don’t have to be $14,000, but if people see a decent rebate or even tax credit I think it does make a difference, not only in a financial point of view. There’s a social point of view that says the government is really promoting the transition to electric vehicles.”
But the political aim of this government, strategists say, is the focus on jobs.
Ford is trying to secure manufacturing in regions like Oakville and Windsor, whereas Liberals look at the issue through a consumer and environmental lens, said Andrew Steele, a vice-president at consulting firm StrategyCorp.
“If you’re looking at it as, ‘I need these kinds of jobs to stay here in Ontario, that’s my critical preoccupation,’ you’re going to spend time thinking about incentives to bring jobs here,” said Steele, a former senior Liberal staffer.
“I think (Ford’s) agnostic to fuel type. That’s where the market is going, so we need to get there for jobs.”
David Tarrant, Ford’s former executive director of strategic communications, said there is a “powerful end-to-end story” Ford can tell about electric-vehicle manufacturing in Ontario, starting with the critical minerals found in the Ring of Fire.
It also gives Ford the opportunity, in the run-up to the June election, to talk about manufacturing job losses under the former Liberal government, and their heavily criticized rebates that went to drivers of luxury electric vehicles, he said.
“What we’re talking about is how Ontario from the manufacturing side and the supply side can actually drive and support this kind of revolution in electric vehicles, create a bunch of jobs, rather than using Ontario taxpayers’ money to support the purchase of vehicles that were manufactured elsewhere,” said Tarrant, now a vice-president at Enterprise, a strategic communications firm.
Jeff Crumb and his family outside Kitchener, Ont., are in the market for a new car and are leaning toward electric. He said the choice would be a lot easier if there was a provincial incentive to cut the purchase price.
“If there was a rebate in place it would be a no-brainer. We would do it immediately,” he said.
An election promise from the Ontario Liberals caught Crumb’s eye, though he’s not able to wait to see the outcome of the June 2 vote before making his next vehicle purchase.
The Liberals are promising a rebate of up to $8,000 on electric vehicles that cost up to $55,000. The New Democrats are promising so-far unspecified rebates for non-luxury electric vehicles.
“When the price of an electric vehicle is, you know, 10 or 15 or $20,000 more than a gas-powered vehicle, it does make that decision really tough,” Crumb said.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
