With varying ambition, all of Canada’s main parties want to slash greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030.
The Liberals plan to lower them by 40 to 45 per cent by 2030, while the Conservatives are sticking with a 30 per cent reduction. The NDP and Greens are more ambitious, seeking to cut greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 50 and 60 per cent, respectively.
Key to any GHG-reduction plan is getting gas-powered vehicles off the road.
Transportation accounts for 25 per cent of Canada’s total GHG emissions, or 185.8 megatonnes, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
That’s second only to the oil and gas sector, which is responsible for 26 per cent, or 191.4 megatonnes of GHGs.
The transportation sector’s emissions have also been growing fast. Since 1990, the earliest data ECCC provides, they’ve increased by 82 per cent. Oil and gas emissions have gone up by 88 per cent.
Trucks and passenger cars alone account for nearly half the transportation sector’s overall emissions, or 12 per cent of Canada’s total.
The Liberals and Conservatives both have serious plans to decarbonize Canadian transportation, says Joanna Kyriazis, a senior policy adviser at Clean Energy Canada, a think tank at B.C.’s Simon Fraser University.
“I’m really pleased with the (parties’) level of ambition (to cut) auto emissions,” she said. “There seems to be a race to the top, as opposed to a race to the bottom, between the Conservatives and Liberals.”
Despite their similar proposals, there’s a “substantial difference” between the two parties, says Warren Mabee, a professor specializing in renewable energy at Queen’s University.
The Conservative plan appeals to “pragmatists,” whereas the Liberal one appeals to “optimists,” Mabee said.
But the latter does a better job of taking the complexity of supply and demand into account, Kryiazis said.
Canada currently has policies in place to stimulate consumer demand, but not to increase supply of electric vehicles (EVs).
The Liberal platform addresses “the demand side (by making) it easier and more affordable for Canadians to buy electric vehicles,” and “the supply side (by forcing) makers to sell more EV makes and models,” he said.
Both parties are promising to force manufacturers to sell a certain percentage of electric cars in Canada by 2030. The Conservatives are proposing 30 per cent, and the Liberals 50 per cent.
A mandate is necessary to ensure an adequate supply of EVs in Canada, said Cedric Smith, a senior analyst with the Pembina Institute, a non-profit think tank focused on clean energy issues. Quebec and B.C., where the vast majority of EVs in Canada are sold, both have their own mandates.
A Transport Canada study also says lack of supply is a problem.
“We really want to focus on increasing … supply in order to increase uptake,” Smith said.
Kryiazis credits the Conservative platform, which came out early in the election campaign, for upping the ante for EV mandates.
“The Conservatives, in being heavy on the supply-side policies, have now pushed the Liberals to offer that other piece … they’ve been so reluctant to offer,” she said. “It was the Conservative plan that (first) pushed the Liberals to do anything hard on the supply side.”
In 2017, former Transport minister Marc Garneau publicly rejected an EV mandate.
Another way the Tories are pushing more supply is by proposing that charging stations be part of the national building code, which would help allay consumer fears that charging stations are scarce, Kryiazis said.
Building codes are a provincial matter, however, making the policy harder to implement, said Isabelle Turcotte, director of federal policy at Pembina.
“There’s no obligation on the (part of) provinces to adopt them,” she said. “But it takes leadership and collaboration for the federal government to work with those provinces to adopt ambitious codes, or go beyond them.”
The Liberals promise money, but not a mandate to get charging stations into buildings.
They’re offering more on the demand side, though.
“It’s important to provide purchasing incentives for electric vehicles, to address their higher, up-front purchase price (compared to their) internal-combustion-engine counterparts,” Smith said.
The federal government and several provinces have purchase incentives in place. Ottawa offers up to $5,000 toward a new EV, which can be added to any provincial incentive.
The program has been very popular since its introduction in 2019. By July 2020, Canadians had taken advantage of nearly all the $300 million initially set aside for it.
More than 100,000 Canadians have done so, according to an August 2021 statement from Transport Canada, and Ottawa recently added $287 million to the program to meet demand. Over half a billion dollars have been spent on the program to date, and the Liberals are proposing $1.5 billion more.
The Liberal platform also promises to extend the rebate to used cars and more models, which will help more low-income Canadians enter the EV market. It also mentions investing in charging infrastructure, retrofitting large trucks, and attracting EV investment and manufacturing.
The Conservative platform says nothing about incentives to buy EVs, and the party failed to respond to iPolitics’ questions by filing deadline.
The Tories are promising money for charging stations, hydrogen technology, electricity-transmission infrastructure, and EV-battery manufacture and recycling.