Many jurisdictions across Canada and the US have recently brought in rules to phase out the sales of new internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Now according to a senior government official, Canada wants to strengthen environmental ties with the US to bring in a North American wide ban.
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told Reuters this week that Ottawa and president-elect Joe Biden have both agreed electric vehicle (EV) adoption needs to happen quicker than its current pace.
Canadian officials will discuss with the incoming US administration on how to make this happen, and how to reduce the overall impact of the transport sector, which accounts for 26% of Canadian emissions.
Those discussions will include focusing on what British Columbia and Quebec have already done. Both Canadian provinces announced new plans this year to ban the sale of new gas cars by 2040 and 2035 respectively.
Despite a very popular iZEV rebate program in Canada which offers up to $5,000 off the purchase of a qualifying zero-emission vehicle, Canada is falling behind its greenhouse gas reduction targets.
The Government of Canada recently committed another $437M towards EV related initiatives in its Fall Economic Statement 2020.
