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 far faster than anyone predicted even 10 months ago when General Motors CEO Mary Barra delivered the bad news for Oshawa and its skilled autoworkers. The grim announcement cut especially deep through the rank and file of unionized members who had already been beaten down by two-tier wages and who believed that a new model for the plant was guaranteed.

Within weeks, the notion of nationalizing Oshawa was floated through groups like the Socialist Project. But as Russ Christianson says, “We really didn’t know if it made any sense at all.”

Christianson, who earned a B. Comm at Queen’s and a masters in industrial relations from the University of Toronto, was commissioned by the Canadian Worker Co-Op Federation to work up a preliminary feasibility study on a new future for the Oshawa facility, an initiative promoted by Green Jobs Oshawa.

By way of background, he cites Unifor’s economic impact numbers on what the closure will mean: a $4-billion-a-year loss to Ontario’s GDP, and that’s while holding on to those 300 stamping and parts assembly jobs.

Here are some go-forward numbers. The estimated public investment to acquire and retool the plant for the production of battery electric vehicles: $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion. The estimated production of electric vehicles: 150,000 in the first five years. Factored-in government procurement of new light duty electric vehicles: one quarter of the facility’s production — a necessary guarantee to make the plan work — with governments taking all of the vehicles produced in year one. Bottom line forecast: an operating loss in the first three years followed by a tiny operating profit of $2.4 million in year four. OK, let’s call it break even.

Just take a breath. Do you agree that the climate crisis is a top issue in this election? Do your children see the climate crisis as a threat, not just for tomorrow, but today? Do you believe an electric car is in your future? Do you believe Canada, and particularly Oshawa with its 100-year car-making history, should have a future in auto manufacture?

Back to the study, and this part is going to drive the critics crazy. Christianson’s analysis is based not on a conventional return-on-investment model, but rather a triple-bottom-line evaluation that places social and environmental benefits on equal footing with ROI. The maximization of shareholder value is not the mantra here. Viewed through a social lens: the study forecasts an estimated 2,300 to 2,900 direct jobs. Viewed through an environmental lens: an estimated decrease in greenhouse gas emissions of 400,000 metric tonnes by the end of the fifth year of production.

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Christianson is the first to admit that this isn’t a full-on feasibility study. It fails to make a hard business case. Government procurement would have to be guaranteed: the electrification of the fleet of 13,000 Canada Post vehicles, for example. And what company would step in as the manufacturing partner? Where is Canada’s StreetScooter?

There are a million questions. It’s a good time to raise them, not only because of the federal election, but because the UN Climate Action Summit is just days away. “The only way this is going to happen is if the federal government takes some leadership,” Christianson says. Leadership in delivering an innovative future at a time of crisis.

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