Subsidies part of Ontario’s climate plan

TORONTO — Queen’s Park will start a “cash-for-clunkers” program to encourage motorists to switch to electric cars, subsidize free overnight electrical charging at home, and make garage plugs mandatory in all new houses and condos.

Those are some of the 28 key measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in “Ontario’s Five Year Climate Action Plan 2016-2020” to be introduced Wednesday, the Toronto Star reports. The 85-page plan will also “increase the availability and use of lower-carbon fuel” to convince truckers to switch from diesel to natural gas, propane, or gasoline mixed with ethanol. That’s being done in conjunction with the Ontario Trucking Association, Union Gas, and Enbridge.

“When my grandchildren ask me what we did to help our planet, I want to be proud of what we accomplished,” Premier Kathleen Wynne writes in the introduction to the longawaited strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Together, we will build a greener, more prosperous future for them and for generations to come,” she says.

While there had been speculation the climate change action plan might somehow mandate the eventual phasing out of natural gas in home heating, it in fact just calls for “all new homes to be net zero carbon homes” by 2030.

That means newly constructed houses can be heated using natural gas, though builders will have to offset that by finding other efficiencies to reduce their carbon footprint.

Confirmation of this should come as a relief to homeowners and the natural gas industry after a fortnight of rumours fuelled by opposition MPPs hoping to derail the Liberals’ climate-change plan after a PowerPoint laying out policymaking options was leaked.

There will also be incentives for rural residents to replace inefficient wood-burning stoves with more modern equipment that burn fewer logs.

In all, between $500 million and $600 million will be available to homeowners over five years to retrofit and update their homes to make them more energy efficient, including the installation of high-tech Wi-Fi EcoBee and Nest thermostats.

Significantly, a new mandatory “home energy rating and disclosure program” is coming. Billed as a consumer-protection move, it will force anyone selling their house to get a free energy audit.

Information on that audit — similar to a home inspection but paid for by the government — would have to be made available to homebuyers.

Some of the biggest changes in Wednesday’s strategy involve the government’s gamble on electric cars.

Existing rebates of up to $14,000 per vehicle will be expanded, with up to $1,000 available to install a home-charging station.

Wynne’s government is negotiating with Ottawa to eliminate the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax for electric cars by 2018.

As well, a four-year “free overnight electric vehiclecharging program” in houses and condos will begin next year.

“The goal would be to lower overall electricity bills for homes that charge vehicles,” the plan states.

A new “cash-for-clunkers” program will be launched to replace jalopies with new or used electric cars.

“The province intends to help get older and less fuelefficient vehicles off the roads by offering a rebate to low- and moderate-income households that will help them replace old cars with new or used electric vehicles or a plug-in hybrid,” it continues.

Details of the rebates and subsidies are being worked out and should come later this year.