Where Canadians Stand on the ZEV Supply Chain
Findings from Phase One of ConnectZEV | An Accelerate program supported by RBC Foundation
ConnectZEV: A summary of public opinion findings on Canada’s zero-emission vehicle supply chain, drawn from a national survey and three focus groups conducted between May 2025 and May 2026.
Research Focus
In May 2025, Environics surveyed 2,039 Canadians about the seven industries that make up the ZEV supply chain: critical mineral mining, processing, battery material production, battery production, EV components, EV assembly, and charging infrastructure. In March and May 2026, PRA Inc. ran three focus groups to look at what Canadians understood about those industries and how they responded to different descriptions of the respective industries.
Overall Support
Between 66% and 78% of Canadians support the development of each of the seven industries as a means to grow the economy and create jobs. Critical mineral mining led at 78%, with critical mineral processing close behind at 77%. EV production and battery material production sat lower in the ranking but still above majority support.
Support by Region and Political Affiliation
When the data is broken down by region and political affiliation, the picture becomes more nuanced. Among the industries discussed, support was conspicuously stronger for those which are less well known as a part of the ZEV supply chain. Which is to say, the weaker the observable link to the ZEV industry, as interpreted by the average Canadian, the stronger the support among the group sampled.
This pattern holds across the supply chain, but its expression varies meaningfully by region and by political affiliation. Support for upstream industries such as critical mineral mining and processing remains broadly stable across the country, while support for the more visibly EV-coded segments of the supply chain drops off in specific places and among specific groups.
Support by Region
| wdt_ID | wdt_created_by | wdt_created_at | wdt_last_edited_by | wdt_last_edited_at | By Region | Critical Mineral Mining | EV Battery Material Production | Gap (pts) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | Canada (total) | 77.6% | 66.2% | 11.4 |
| 2 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | British Columbia | 75.4% | 67.8% | 7.6 |
| 3 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | Alberta | 77.3% | 56.5% | 20.8 |
| 4 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | Manitoba / Saskatchewan | 80.9% | 54.1% | 26.8 |
| 5 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | Ontario | 78.8% | 68.7% | 10.1 |
| 6 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | Quebec | 74.5% | 70.2% | 4.3 |
| 7 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:37 AM | Atlantic Canada | 83.6% | 64.1% | 19.5 |
Source: Environics Research, national public opinion survey on the Canadian ZEV supply chain, May 2025. n=2,039.
Support by Federal Vote Intention
| wdt_ID | wdt_created_by | wdt_created_at | wdt_last_edited_by | wdt_last_edited_at | By Federal Vote Intention | Critical Mineral Mining | EV Battery Material Production | Gap (pts) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | Liberal | 79.4% | 76.5% | 2.9 |
| 2 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | Conservative | 85.3% | 57.8% | 27.5 |
| 3 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | NDP | 64.3% | 69.3% | (5.0) |
| 4 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | Green | 57.3% | 64.2% | (6.9) |
| 5 | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | admin | 12/06/2026 10:43 AM | Bloc Québécois | 81.1% | 79.7% | 1.4 |
Source: Environics Research, national public opinion survey on the Canadian ZEV supply chain, May 2025. n=2,039.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pattern aligns with Conservative vote share at the regional level. The provinces with the largest gaps between upstream and downstream support are those where Conservative voters make up the largest share of the electorate. In Saskatchewan and Alberta, where Conservative support in the April 2025 federal election sat at 64.6% and 63.5% respectively, the gap between support for critical mineral mining and support for EV battery material production is the most pronounced. In Quebec, where Conservative vote share was 23.3%, the gap is the smallest. British Columbia and Ontario, with moderate Conservative shares, fall in between. At the national level, Conservative voters show a 27.5-point gap between mining and battery material production, the largest of any political grouping.
Atlantic Canada does not fit this pattern cleanly. Conservative vote share in the Atlantic provinces sits closer to that of British Columbia, yet the gap between upstream and downstream support is much larger, more comparable to Alberta’s. This suggests that the gradient is not driven by partisan identity alone. Something about the region’s relationship to resource industries appears to be doing additional work. Atlantic Canada has a longstanding economic and cultural connection to extractive industries, while EV-related manufacturing has little physical presence there. Support for mining and processing may track with what feels recognizable and locally meaningful, while support for downstream EV industries reflects greater unfamiliarity or politically charged notions of the industry.
The implication is that the upstream/downstream gradient is shaped by at least two distinct factors: a political dimension that follows Conservative voter concentration, and a regional dimension tied to how legible different parts of the supply chain are within a province’s existing economic identity. These factors reinforce each other in the Prairies, where both are present, however they appear to operate independently in Atlantic Canada, where regional identity supports the pattern even where the political conditions differ.
Understanding and Support for ZEV Industries
Focus groups looked at how much Canadians actually understood about the industries they reported supporting, and the picture that emerged was less consistent than the survey numbers might suggest. In many cases, a basic understanding of a favoured industry was not a prerequisite for supporting it.
Asked what critical mineral processing and refining involve, one focus group participant said:
“I can’t even come up with a reasonable response. I can picture the mines and the sites, but I kind of just imagine, like, an assembly line. I don’t know what they’re doing to them.”
This participant supported the industry. Across the group, survey-level support and focus group-level understanding did not always line up which implies that the breadth of support captured in the survey may rest on a thinner foundation than the numbers on their own communicate.
On the depth of support
The focus group observation finds an echo in the survey data. Strong support across all seven industries sits at or below one in three Canadians. Two thirds of respondents believe Canada is falling behind international leaders in this space. Only 18% say the ZEV supply chain should be a top investment priority. Support is broad, but the share of it that is intense or considered is narrower.
Public opinion does not drive investment decisions on its own, but it can shape whether the policy conditions that attract investment hold up across election campaigns, opposition pressure, budget cycles, and visible project setbacks. Recent experience with battery manufacturing commitments in Canada offers a view of how support that is broad but not deep may not hold up when political conditions become difficult.
“I can’t even come up with a reasonable response. I can picture the mines and the sites, but I kind of just imagine, like, an assembly line. I don’t know what they’re doing to them.”
This participant supported the industry. The survey response and the focus group response did not always line up across the participants.
What This Means for the Industry
While a majority of respondents support the industry to some extent, strong support across all seven industries sits at or below one in three Canadians. Two thirds of respondents believe Canada is falling behind international leaders in this space. Only 18% say the ZEV supply chain should be a top investment priority. Support is broad but not strongly held.
Public opinion does not drive investment decisions on its own, but it can shape whether the policy conditions that attract investment hold up across election campaigns, opposition pressure, budget cycles, and visible project setbacks. Recent experience with battery manufacturing commitments in Canada offers a view of how support that is broad but not deep may not hold up when political conditions become difficult.
Canada’s strongest competitive position in the ZEV space may sit upstream rather than downstream. Final assembly faces intense global competition, and Canadian automotive production has been declining in recent years. Critical minerals extraction, expanding processing capacity, and the energy and infrastructure base required for battery materials production are where Canada’s structural advantages are concentrated and where public support for the industry is strongest.
The segments of the ZEV industry where Canada’s opportunity is most competitive are also those where public support is highest, and where it holds up best across the regions and voter groups most likely to scrutinize EV-specific policy.
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