It’s unclear whether the $43 million in Canadian taxpayer money claimed by Tesla in a flurry of last-minute EV rebate claims has been paid out to the electric vehicle manufacturer run by U.S. government-waste elimination czar Elon Musk.
Transport Canada confirmed it is “assessing” Tesla’s 1,900-per-cent surge in claims over the final weekend of the federal subsidy program in January but would not say whether the money had been transferred.
The large sum hangs in the balance as a potential bargaining chip in the burgeoning trade war between Canada and the United States, as Tesla has become the target of ire for Canadians who resent U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex the country.
The Tesla-trade link was made explicit when Musk and Trump stood beside a row of Teslas at the White House last week and reiterated his intentions.
“Canada should honestly become the 51st state,” Trump said after he pledged to purchase the EVs for himself and his staff. “It makes a lot of sense.”
The sentiment echoed Musk’s now-infamous February tweet that “Canada is not a real country.”
The fact that Tesla has been the biggest recipient of Canadian EV rebates — having taken in more than $713 million in public funds — has added injury to insult, especially as its final-weekend surge in rebate claims left Canadian car dealers out of pocket more than $10 million.
“Let’s not give them free money for the honor of being insulted,” said Flavio Volpe, president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.
“At a time when Tesla CEO is pontificating on the morality of government processes and waste in the U.S, his company is using every loophole and trick possible to maximize government subsidy in Canada,” Volpe added.
The Star revealed the record-breaking surge in Tesla rebate claims earlier this month and the story has been picked up by news outlets across Canada and the United States. Immediately after the government warned EV dealers that rebate money was running low, Tesla sales skyrocketed from 300 to 5,800 a day across four locations in Toronto, Quebec City and Vancouver, allowing the Musk-run company to claim $43.1 million in rebates, or 60 per cent of the remaining public funds.
This left more than 226 independently owned and operated Canadian car dealers, who fronted rebates to customers, to find belatedly that Tesla “had a run on the bank” and there was no money left to reimburse them.
Anita Anand, who was transport minister until last Friday, declined requests for interviews and did not respond to questions for a week before she was shuffled to the innovation, science and industry portfolio. Chrystia Freeland, who took over as transport minister, did not respond to an interview request nor questions regarding the rebates and the Canadian dealers out of pocket.
“Transport Canada continues to assess the large batch of claims submitted by dealerships after the announcement of the iZEV Program’s pause on January 12, 2025,” said Transport Canada spokesperson Flavio Nienow in an email to the Star. “Transport Canada is examining all possible options for dealerships who did not submit their eligibility application before the deadline.”
The Star spoke with three Canadian EV dealers who all said they had not yet received reimbursement for rebate claims made in January.
Last week, Toronto Deputy Mayor Mike Colle, who is also the city councillor for Ward 8 where a Tesla showroom is located, sent a letter to the federal ministers of transport and finance calling for a full investigation into the “extraordinary and suspicious” Tesla rebate numbers.
In response to Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff threats, elected representatives from across Canada have made moves to cut American companies off from public funds, including limiting their ability to bid on public contracts and qualify for subsidy programs.
While running for the federal Liberal leadership, Freeland had pledged to put a 100 per cent tariff on Tesla vehicles.
In British Columbia, Premier David Eby has explicitly excluded Tesla from the province’s home-charger rebate program, saying “It’s just for Tesla and it’s because of Elon Musk.”
Eby’s Energy Minister Adrian Dix told reporters last week he didn’t think public dollars should flow to Tesla.
“I thought (Tesla products) shouldn’t be made available on a public subsidy program right now. I don’t think anyone in British Columbia needs to be told why, and I think most people would support their removal from that list,” he said, according to the CBC.
Tesla’s role as beneficiary of government funds while its CEO leads an unprecedented effort to shut down entire branches of the U.S. government and lay off tens of thousands of civil servants in an effort to root out government waste, is “in keeping with the company and the brand,” Volpe said.
Tesla has benefitted from large injections of U.S. government money, Volpe said.
“This is not a company that has a great relationship with the Canadian consumer and the regulators who help to articulate the Canadian market. It is a company that has not invested in assembly in Canada, but is receiving significantly better consumer credits than anybody else,” he said.
“We should have special antennas up for Tesla.”
Last week, protests broke out at Tesla showrooms in Canada and the United States as Trump purchased a red Tesla in front of the cameras at the White House, proclaiming it “beautiful” and expressing surprise at the interior, where “everything’s computer.”
He then praised Musk for having found $500 billon in government “waste.”
“We’re talking about billions of dollars being given to defunct scams,” he said.
Tesla’s share price and sales have tanked around the world, though it’s difficult to say whether this is politically motivated. Much of it can be chalked up to the ending of rebate programs in Quebec, Canada and Europe, as well as a price increase of as much as $9,000 on some models.
Thanks to burgeoning sales growth over 2024, however, Tesla’s abysmal January sales were still higher than they were a year prior.
With data analysis by Nathan Pilla
