Panel to bring more electric cars to Canada

The federal government has created an advisory panel aimed at bringing more zero-emission vehicles to roads across the country, a decision that industry manufacturers and electric car advocates say is a positive step forward.

While the details of the strategy have yet to be discussed, Transport Minister Marc Garneau told The Canadian Press on Friday that the government will not follow Quebec’s zero-emission vehicle mandate, which requires automakers to sell a minimum number of electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuelcell vehicles — a move that is sure to please Canada’s automakers.

Garneau and Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, in Montreal and Toronto, respectively, announced the creation of a panel of experts that will focus on developing a national strategy to increase the number of zero-emissions vehicles on Canadian roads by 2018. The advisory panel includes representatives from the auto industry, non-government organizations, academia, and both provincial and federal levels of government.

Flavio Volpe, the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association and member of the panel, said it’s important that industry leaders are in the room for the policy discussions that could disrupt the auto sector.

“If you look at the names and the seniority of the people on the table, we have the right people there,” he said. “The fact that the (Innovation) Minister is running the Canadian panel is a better indication of the sanguine approach we’re going to take to this than the one by the Minister of Climate Change in Ontario.”

At a news conference Friday in Toronto, Bains commended the auto industry for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for vehicles by 25 per cent on average since 2005, but said there is more work to do.

“About 48 per cent of emissions from the transportation sector still come from cars and light duty trucks. Putting more zero emission vehicles on the road will make an important contribution to reducing our carbon emissions,” he said. Financial Post with files from The Canadian Press