Ottawa says it's repealing the electric vehicle sales mandate, but it's still paying to promote electric vehicles.

Natural Resources Canada lists a contribution of up to $250,000 to the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, starting July 23, 2026 and running to March 31, 2028, for a project called “What Every Community Needs to Know About Charging Station Safety,” the federal grants disclosure shows.

The money comes from the Zero Emission Vehicle Awareness Initiative, whose stated expected result is “increased awareness, knowledge of and confidence in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.”

The fire chiefs’ project was part of a package of roughly $11 million in projects announced on July 30 by Environment and Climate Change Canada under Minister Julie Dabrusin. Thirteen of them, about $1.97 million by the release’s figures, were awareness projects such as EV test drives and webinars for vehicle sales teams. The

fire chiefs’ project is described as a “national charging station fire guidance toolkit,” with emergency preparedness materials and builder guidance.

The announcement came five months after Prime Minister Mark Carney said on February 5 that Ottawa would repeal the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, the EV sales mandate, while offering rebates under a $2.3 billion program. Ottawa had paused the mandate’s 2026 targets in September 2025, and the formal repeal went to the Canada Gazette for a 75-day comment period in August 2026.

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The awareness program’s intake had already closed, and its description, a template shared across the department’s clean fuels and transportation programs, still refers to “complementing enhanced carbon pricing.” The consumer fuel charge was removed on April 1, 2025, though the industrial price remains.

The fire chiefs are now being paid to write national guidance on charging station fires. Their own report on medium and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles, produced with Transport Canada funding, says “there is no consensus on emergency response in Canada or internationally” to such fires.

No public record we found names who approved the contribution.