(Ottawa) Federal Minister of the Environment Steven Guilbeault intends to take action to ensure that, starting at the end of 2022 or at the latest at the beginning of 2023, automobile dealers in Canada are required to sell a certain number of electric vehicles.
Quotas in this direction already exist in Quebec since 2018; British Columbia followed last year.
Road transportation accounts for approximately 20% of Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To achieve its zero emissions goal in 2050, the elimination of carbon dioxide emissions from cars will be an important step for the country. The government is targeting that in 2030, half of the vehicles sold emit no GHGs and that this proportion will be 100% by 2035.
In the past two years, Canadians have purchased more electric vehicles than in the previous eight years combined, but just 3% of purchases were for fully electric or plug-in hybrids. Minister Guilbeault admits that the objective of 50% by 2030 is very ambitious.
This fall, he launched consultations on how to achieve his goals.
PHOTO PATRICK DOYLE, ARCHIVES THE CANADIAN PRESS
Steven Guilbeault
Last year, three quarters of new electric vehicles sold in Canada were sold in Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario. Outside Quebec and British Columbia, the wait for one can be up to six months, compounded by the recent global semiconductor shortage.
Until a year and a half ago, Quebec and British Columbia were the only Canadian provinces that offered consumers a subsidy on the purchase of an electric car. Over the past 18 months, the four Atlantic provinces as well as the Yukon and the Northwest Territories have done the same.
Minister Guilbeault affirms that the initiatives of Quebec and British Columbia have contributed to the availability of electric vehicles, the choice of models and options, the autonomy of the batteries and a drop in prices.
According to Steven Guilbeault, if Canada does not act quickly to promote the sale of vehicles without GHG emissions, it will not benefit from the associated economic benefits.
Canada is already lagging behind other industrialized countries in the sale of electric cars. The proportion is 75% in Norway, 13.5% in Germany, 11.3% in France and the United Kingdom and 5.7% in China; it is only 3.5% in Canada.
Most of these countries have increased subsidies for the purchase of electric cars.