As Canada thrashes about reversing its mad charge toward a non-existent energy transition while plunging boldly on, under its new Prime Minister who loves carbon taxes but hates them, sad news reaches us that “Cabinet is searching for new investors to save a heavily subsidized Québec electric auto battery plant, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said yesterday. Northvolt, the original owner, filed for bankruptcy in its native Sweden.” Which isn’t the sad part unless you’re one of those weirdos who gets upset at governments incinerating tax dollars while neglecting their core duties. The sad part is that whilst passing the hat, and the buck, Champagne told reporters “What’s important is we managed to get Québec into the automobile industry.” Yeah. Except for the automobiles. It really is a weird fantasy land they inhabit.

Among its strange features, failure is success. Thus in the face of cascading failures a “Department of Industry briefing note” with the not really soothing title “Delays And Challenges In Canada’s Automotive Industry Transition To Electrification” burbles:

“The government recognizes any major industrial transformation takes time and that responsible risk taking is an inherent part of supporting innovation in a competitive global economy. While the implementation time frame may vary with market conditions, the companies investing in Canada remain committed.”

The implementation time frame, no less. And as Blacklock’s Reporter says tartly:

“The document was written three days after Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne asked Canadians to rally around the industry.”

As if we have a choice, with them picking our pockets for subsidies, and ordering us to buy the things. Which could be described as bossy but these people know all and see all or think they do. Thus Champagne brushes off Northvolt’s bankruptcy and the incredible vanishing subsidies with “You’re going from a technology that we’ve been doing for 100 years and now we’re looking at the next 100 years.” And seeing what? A huge statue of yourself? A vast and shadowy line of subsidies?

The latter is what we’re seeing, including some unspecified sum that went to the lucky folks at the “PAK Lithium Project” because:

“Worldwide demand for critical minerals is expected to double by 2040, and Canada is uniquely positioned to be a global leader and supply this growing market”.

Wow. And there’s more. You also get:

“Since the launch of Canada’s first-ever Critical Minerals Strategy in 2023, the government has made historic investments and removed barriers to get good mines and processing facilities built faster, without compromising the environment and Indigenous rights…. As Canada continues to position itself for success with a cleaner, stronger and better-prepared economy – one that is competitive in a low-carbon world – projects like this one are key.”

Now when governments, especially the Canadian one, use the term “continues” it means they wouldn’t have a clue how to do something even if they tried, not that they are pointing to a solid record of success. But it would be easier to believe their vision for 2040 (and 2125) and their assessment of underlying economic conditions if they’d seen the bankruptcy of Northvolt coming… or recognized it as a disaster when it did instead of billing it as a triumph.

Instead it turns out that public sector unions have been investing their gold-plated pensions in this trendy thing too, secure in the knowledge that if all goes sour the same governments that made taxpayers without defined-benefit pensions pay for public servants with them will bail them out from… those taxpayers’ pockets, already emptied to buy expensive EVs they didn’t even want if any actually get built which may well not happen.

Then there’s a press release “From yellow to green: Canada supports electric school bus transition”, which informs us that some lucky people just bagged nearly a million dollars to think about a greener world:

“The transition from conventional diesel vehicles to electric requires important planning and preparation. This investment will support First Canada ULC to complete the necessary studies and collect the data needed to eventually move toward a zero emission bus fleet. The planning studies will help analyze routes and operations, assess risk, identify utility and facility requirements, assist with costs estimates, and determine project feasibility. Once complete, this project will increase First Canada ULC’s readiness to transition to a zero emission bus fleet. First Canada ULC provides school bus transportation services, operating buses in six provinces and one territory.”

So no actual buses. Just visionary visioning of a vision. Man, that’s living.

Or not because of the safety issue. We don’t want to go on at too great length about it. But it’s not trivial, especially because the EV boosters are, normally, hypersensitive to it. For instance (h/t Anthony Watts) “Tube” drivers in London, UK, are threatening to strike unless the city’s exquisitely woke mayor relents and bans e-bikes from the whole London Underground network because of their tendency to explode into toxic flames, as e-scooters have been banned since 2021.

As with many other aspects of the shimmering green vision, direct contact with its components can be painful financially even when not physically. Thus California recently withdrew its zero-emission truck mandate, because of “[h]igh costs, infrastructure gaps, and legal challenges” (well, it is California, the state where your blender power cord warns of cancer risks). And while some of the problem was clearly bureaucratic, there are those who’d ask whether, if they’re not actually the ticket in balmy California, they’re really what you want in a Canadian winter.

We also note that in disgust at Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump, many of the kinds of people who would buy an EV to prove a point are now refusing to buy them. (Not to mention the idiots actively destroying other people’s.) To which we say it’s a free world and it’s your money, until the government grabs it. But if you think buying Chinese EVs is better for the world economically, politically or environmentally we question your judgement sharply. There’s a lot of buyer remorse in the world of EVs, and it could be about to get worse.

Or not, if you’re the Canadian government and able to spend unlimited amounts of other people’s money to avoid swallowing your swollen prickly pride and admitting error. And indeed, undaunted by its failure on EVs, unless you count getting a province into an industry it’s not in with subsidies that produced nothing, the Canadian government is apparently dumping hundreds of millions, details to follow, into other magic beans as well, including “Canada partners with Heidelberg Materials to drive cement industry decarbonization”, with a preliminary $49 million and up to a quarter billion or more if it fails slowly.