THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ENERGY TRANSITIONS IN CANADA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AUTO INDUSTRY

The dual energy crises in 1973-74 and 1979-80 hit Ontario 12 hard but the province was spared the worst effects of the energy price shocks by the federal government’s two-price energy policy — especially in comparison to the US where the manufacturing sector immediately absorbed the full impact of the price hikes. [...] However, a series of disruptions in the North American automotive industry since the early 2000s, including changes in consumer demand for the product mix allocated to Ontario plants and the impact of the 2008/09 financial crisis, has resulted in a shift of production to the American south and Mexico, leading to the increasing commoditization of the automotive sector (Klier and Rubenstein 2013; Mo. [...] The results came as a major surprise to many observers with the announcement of major new BEV mandates assigned to the Ford assembly plant in Oakville and the FCA (Stellantis) assembly plant in Windsor, as well as the conversion of a GM plant in Ingersoll to the production of the new BrightDrop EV delivery van. [...] Both the speed and effectiveness of the transition reflect the fact that the traditional development coalition that has underpinned the success of the provincial automotive sector since the combined threat posed by Japanese transplants and the deindustrialization of the US Midwest in the 1980s (Anastakis 2013) — including the leading multinational OEMs, domestic auto suppliers, their respective in. [...] Besides the risk of reduced demand for oil, the dismal prospect of Ottawa raising more tax revenue from the province — as upheld in the Supreme Court of Canada (2021) reference case on the constitutionality of carbon pricing — offers the stick to bring Alberta-based stakeholders to the table and collaborate on provincial measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep the tax revenue in the p.