Jennifer Wells: Would it be crazy to nationalize the Oshawa General Motors plant and use it to make electric vehicles for Canada Post?
(The Star Television)

It seems discordant to speak of the “temporary� layoff of workers at the GM plant in Oshawa, when full-on assembly closure is just weeks away. The forest/trees analogy comes to mind.So let’s take another look at the Oshawa plant and a preliminary feasibility study, released Thursday, promoting sustainable economic health and wealth by transforming the 10-million-square-foot facility into a maker of electric vehicles to meet the fleet requirements of Canada Post and others. This is the moment when enraged readers will rush to their keyboards to write the latest “what planet are you on� missive. But anyone who ascribes to the view that the strong economies of the future will coexist only in alliance with a clean environment will acknowledge that zero-emissions transportation is an inevitable part of that future. So hold on to the lectures about the cost of batteries (declining) and the lack of infrastructure (that’s changing), while remembering the outsized and unsupportable role that gas-powered vehicles play in greenhouse gas emissions.Not to mention the speed of transformation. Two months ago Volkswagen announced that it would have 14 electrified models ready for the Chinese market this year, and is building two plants with a total annual capacity of 600,000 vehicles. The Chinese city of Shenzhen went all-electric with their taxis this year. (That’s more than 20,000 taxis.) Germany’s GoGreen initiative caused Deutsche Post to go in search of electric light-commercial vehicles. When it couldn’t find a satisfactory supplier it took over a startup called StreetScooter and zoomed into the world of zero emissions. StreetScooter is now poised to enter China through a joint venture to manufacture electric light-commercial vehicles there — the memorandum of understanding was signed as part of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s trip to Beijing earlier this month.My point: the transformation is happening fa ...