Dear Editor:
An open letter to Premier Doug Ford.
Please stop spending our collective money on supporting any commercial enterprise that cannot support itself.
As a fellow businessman you and I both know that the survival rate of a business that needs government money to start up is very poor. If a good business case could be made, then private venture capital would be pouring in.
The case of supporting the electric vehicle (EV) industry is a classic and should be taught in business schools.
Using batteries to drive vehicles was only considered a temporary measure until more transportable fuels could be made available, e.g. hydrogen. As such the rank-and-file person who simply needs transport and not a mobile statement is waiting until such vehicles become available.
Because the EVs are expensive to produce people just cannot/will not afford them. Of course we could open up the entire market to Chinese dumping, but I doubt that we want that. A couple of other problems are:
– safety if the battery splits in a collision;
– recycling availability; and
– environmental cost of mining and manufacturing.
I know you know all this, because unlike most politicians you can think outside of ideology and mythology; that is why I voted for you.
Come on! Get out of this silly political economics. Don’t get sucked in by the King Ideologue, he has absolutely no idea of the consequences of his actions. How could he? Unlike you and I, he has never had to meet payroll with his initiatives.
Michael Lee,
Salem