B.C. scores C-minus on electric vehicle policy
Policies in B.C. aimed at getting more electric vehicles on the road are “marginal” and barely receive a passing grade, according to a new report card released Tuesday.
“It is a bit unfortunate,” said lead author Jonn Axsen, an associate professor in Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Environment.
Canada’s Electric Vehicle Policy Report Card, which gave B.C. a C-minus grade, was prepared by SFU’s Sustainable Transportation Action Research Team, which examined electric vehicle supportive policies either in place or planned across Canada to see which, if any, provinces are on track to make 40 per cent of all new passenger-vehicle sales electric by 2040.
The International Energy Agency has suggested this goal must be met if the world is to limit global warming to two degrees — a goal of the Paris Agreement. No provinces are currently on track to meet that goal.
In 2015, electric vehicles made up about one per cent of new vehicle sales in Canada, and two per cent of sales in B.C. The report authors identified 96 active, proposed and expired policies that aim to increase electric vehicle sales in Canada.
The provinces with the largest number of policies are Quebec with 32, Ontario with 26 and B.C. with 19. These provinces also received the highest grades — B-minus, C-minus and C-minus, respectively. Alberta’s policies received a D. Six provinces received Fs. Canada’s three territories were not part of the report. Overall, Canada received a C-minus.
Axsen said the results did not surprise him: “I knew that Canada as a whole wasn’t likely to do very well in that type of grading scheme.”
However, Axsen said, there’s hope if the federal government and provinces introduce strong demand- and supply-focused policies, such as the forthcoming National Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change.
B.C. introduced its Climate Action Plan in 2008, and Axsen said that while it had a number of strong policies it did not enact zero emission vehicle legislation, which was recently introduced in Quebec and can be effective in encouraging adoption of electric vehicles. Other electric vehicle policies have been “more symbolic.”
“The current government just hasn’t demonstrated the appetite to put in a really effective policy,” Axsen said. “The transition to electric vehicles isn’t going to happen by itself. It has to be driven by policy.”
Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett did not respond to a request for comment by Postmedia’s deadline.
Bruce Sharpe, vice-president of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association, a non-profit organization that promotes the use of battery-powered electric vehicles, called the report comprehensive.
He said it was a good quantitative assessment of existing and future policies.
“I thought it was an excellent piece of work and it’s going to be really helpful for policy-makers in the future,” he said. “The score that they’ve given all the provinces, it’s easy to understand and obviously kind of a wake-up call.”