Budget Watchdog Demands Finance Update on EV Battery Subsidies

Then-Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux waits to appear before the Senate Committee on National Finance, in Ottawa on Oct. 17, 2023. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Canada’s budget watchdog has demanded an update from Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne on the cost of the federal government’s subsidies for electric vehicle battery plants amid a decline in the industry.

The outgoing Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux wrote a letter to the Department of Finance on Aug. 14 to request the department’s updated annual fiscal forecasts of electric vehicle (EV) production subsidies and construction support for Northvolt, Stellantis-LGES, and Volkswagen, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.