Pay-the-Rich Programs for Electric VehiclesThe federal government has for some years been paying point-of-purchase incentives for electric vehicles. The program is called Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (iZEV). The incentives averaging $4,000 per electric vehicle, are direct government payments to the retail seller and manufacturing companies upon the sale or lease of qualifying electric and hybrid vehicles. The program to reduce the market price for the buyer is open to individuals and businesses with a maximum 10 units per organization. Transport Canada writes, "The federal (iZEV) Program provides point-of-sale incentives on eligible zero-emission vehicles. To do this, participating dealerships agree to lower the purchase or lease price of eligible zero-emission vehicles and apply to the iZEV Program for a grant on behalf of the purchaser or lessee." The government says that as of August 31 of this year, over 56,000 payments to companies have been made through the iZEV program totalling more than $239 million. Many global vehicle companies have received payments from the program. Tesla, Inc. so far has been the biggest recipient of the federal government electric vehicle subsidies, pocketing over $60 million. Tesla massaged the rules with a Canada-only electric vehicle model priced at $44,999 to qualify for a $5,000 rebate. Transport Canada writes that the $5,000 amount is available for "a vehicle with six seats or fewer, where the base model (trim) Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) is less than $45,000." The U.S. Tesla cartel has no production facilities in Canada. All its vehicles and other products are made in the U.S., Europe and China. The Quebec, BC and Ontario governments also introduced a comparable pay-the-rich scheme. The Quebec program offers, in addition to the federal amount, a payment of up to $8,000 on the purchase or lease of a new electric vehicle. The program is scheduled to conclude at the end of the year. The BC government has a "CleanBC Go Electric Incentives" program managed by the New Car Dealers Association of BC. The government incentive offers to pay the seller up to $3,000 on the purchase price of a qualifying new electric vehicle, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. The BC payment to the seller can be combined with the federal iZEV scheme and the BC SCRAP-IT program, which pays up to an additional $6,000 to the seller when an older gas vehicle is replaced with the purchase of a new electric vehicle, and $3,000 when a qualifying electric vehicle is purchased. For several years until September 2018, Ontario ran a similar electric vehicle pay-the-rich program with payments of up to $14,000 per vehicle. Dealers that had electric vehicles in stock when the program was discontinued and could not attract buyers with only the federal incentive reportedly transferred all their excess inventories to Quebec dealers. Government Electric Vehicle InfrastructureIn any sector of the modern socialized economy, infrastructure as means of production to support the sector is crucial. The value from this infrastructure should be realized by the companies involved in the sector as they use and consume the infrastructure but this generally does not happen. Government pay-the-rich schemes abound both with the production of infrastructure and during its use and consumption. The Government of Canada has provided over $300 million to establish a coast-to-coast network of fast chargers for electric vehicles, natural gas, and hydrogen refuelling stations and continues at a rate of $75 million more per year. The government has also provided the research, demonstration, and development of next-generation charging technologies. Without this infrastructure Canadians would not purchase ZEVs. Tax Write-Off for BusinessesTransport Canada writes: "[The Trudeau government's] Budget 2019 proposed a 100 per cent write-off for zero-emission vehicles to support business adoption. [...] Where the capital costs for eligible zero-emission passenger vehicles (e.g., cars and SUVs) exceeds $55,000, the 100 per cent write-off will be limited to $55,000 plus the federal and provincial sales tax that would have been paid if the vehicle was purchased for $55,000." No mention is made of a limit on the number of vehicles that a company can claim for the tax write-off. All these programs are aspects of the pay-the-rich economy to support the continued power, wealth and privilege of the global oligarchs. These programs suck value out of the economy and even the country, such as the $60 million the federal government has given the U.S. Tesla cartel under the iZEV pay-the-rich scheme. The working class must expose and denounce all these pay-the-rich schemes and demand they be stopped. The movement to stop paying the rich is a necessary and important part of the program of the working class for a new direction and aim for the economy to serve the people and not the narrow private interests of the global oligarchy. Stop
Paying the Rich!
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