Jack Mintz: Forget the 'just transition.' It's the Boondoggle Transition

financialpost.com:

Forget “energy transition” and “just transition” to describe the transformation of our energy systems. Call it the “boondoggle transition” because that’s what it is turning into.

The $30 billion to be paid by the federal and Ontario governments to just two electric-vehicle battery companies — Volkswagen and Stellantis-LG Energy Solution — is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s expected that together the two projects will “create” 5,500 jobs (though most of the workers likely will come from other jobs) at an eye-popping ten-year cost of $5.5 million per worker. Even if you spread the earnings over 10 years, that’s $550,000 a year, nine times the average Canadian’s annual earnings of $61,000.

Other companies are lining up to build EV battery operations, including Toyota, Ford and Sweden’s Northvolt Ab. Federal Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, chequebook in hand, is still excited about building the auto sector of the future even after its poor performance over the past decade despite a heavy dose of subsidies and NAFTA trade protection.

The opportunity cost to this boondoggle is beyond the pale. The two governments could instead have hired 10,000 physicians over the same decade to help our ailing health care system. Or they could have reduced taxes by $3,000 per year for each Canadian family of four.

The irony is that the main effect of our subsidizing electric battery manufacturing will be to lower costs for Volkswagen and Stellantis auto production in the U.S. This raises an obvious question: why should we do that? Why not have auto producers here buy cheap subsidized batteries from the United States? We seem to be fine with importing subsidized Chinese solar panels to keep solar power prices low. Why not take