March 25 (Reuters) - Canada has frozen all rebate payments for Tesla and banned

the electric-vehicle maker from future EV rebate programs, Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland

said on Tuesday.

No rebate payments will be made until each claim is individually investigated and determined

to be valid, Freeland said in an emailed statement shared by her office.

Freeland also directed the transport department to revise eligibility requirements for

future iZEV programs to ensure that Tesla vehicles are not eligible as long as the "illegitimate

and illegal U.S. tariffs are imposed against Canada."

Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed a slew of new tariffs, with the bulk due in early

April, in the form of steep 25% taxes on most goods from Canada and Mexico.

Trump on Monday said automobile tariffs are coming soon, although not all of his threatened

levies would be enforced on April 2.

Canada has frozen C$43 million ($30.11 million) of rebate payments for Tesla. The order to

stop the payments came before Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a general election

on April 28, according to the Toronto Star, which reported the news earlier.

The Star reported earlier this month that Tesla filed an extraordinary number of EV rebate

claims in the final days of the program in January, with a single Tesla dealership in Quebec

City claiming nearly C$20 million in public subsidies by documenting more than 4,000 electric

vehicle sales over a single weekend.

Toronto stopped providing financial incentives for Tesla vehicles purchased as taxis or ride

shares because of trade tensions with the U.S. earlier this month.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump, has been leading the White House effort to

shrink the federal government and budget as the head of the so-called Department of Government

Efficiency.

($1 = 1.4279 Canadian dollars)