RE:Shocking stupidityYep - totally agree....
What concerns me as a tax payer is that every other subsidy I can think of over the years by Governments to fund an auto manufacturing facility ended up with the auto maker leaving and taxpayers left with holding the bag.
The problem?
Governments never negotiate penalties if the auto makers doesn't fullfill its part of the deal (especially when they pack up and leave later when things don't work out).
Besides, it's not like the Canadian Government is flush with cash. Trudeau has more than doubled the National Debt since he gained power a few short years ago (well maybe they have been long years...lol).
The other thing is something I mentioned in a post a while back in terms of investing in EV makers. Right now we don't know which of them will be successful. Trudeau has made a big and costly bet with taxpayer money that he knows that VW will be one of the successful ones. From everything I have read, this may not be the case. Plus, unless most of the cars produced by VW in the deal are exported to the US, VW would have to significantly dominate the Canadian EV car market which is certainly not the case right now.