The province of Ontario is fast emerging as the leader in the transition to a low-carbon economy in North America. Ontario has recently launched its Climate Action Plan — a five-year plan to fight climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and speedily transition to a low-carbon economy. And the development of a network of electric vehicle charging stations is a key initiative to transform the transportation industry in the province. Following is the July 13 Ontario government News Release outlining the unveiling of electric vehicle charging stations.
Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
Ontario is building almost 500 electric vehicle charging stations at over 250 convenient locations across the province to help reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight climate change.
The province is working with 24 public and private-sector partners to create an unprecedented network of public charging electric vehicle stations in cities, along highways, at workplaces and at various public places across Ontario. This includes over 200 Level 3 and nearly 300 Level 2 charging stations. The entire network will be in service by March 31, 2017.
Green Investment Fund
The province’s $20-million investment under Ontario’s Green Investment Fund will expand charging infrastructure across the province and will help address “range anxiety,” a common concern of consumers regarding the distance electric vehicles can travel compared to traditional vehicles. Building a more robust network of public chargers across Ontario allows electric vehicle owners to plan longer trips knowing that charging stations are as readily available as gas stations. With the new network of stations, electric vehicle drivers will be able to travel confidently from Windsor to Ottawa or from Toronto to North Bay and within and around major urban centres.
The $325-million Green Investment Fund, an initial investment in Ontario’s new five-year Climate Change Action Plan, is already strengthening the economy, creating good jobs and driving innovation while fighting climate change — a strong signal of what Ontarians can expect from the plan and proceeds from the province’s cap and trade program. These investments will help secure a healthy, clean and prosperous low-carbon future and transform the way we live, move, work and adapt to our environment while ensuring strong, sustainable communities.
Economic Plan
Investing in climate action is part of the government’s economic plan to build Ontario up and deliver on its number-one priority to grow the economy and create jobs. The four-part plan includes helping more people get and create the jobs of the future by expanding access to high-quality college and university education. The plan is making the largest infrastructure investment in hospitals, schools, roads, bridges and transit in Ontario’s history and is investing in a low-carbon economy driven by innovative, high-growth, export-oriented businesses. The plan is also helping working Ontarians achieve a more secure retirement.
Quick Facts
- There are nearly 7,000 electric vehicles currently on the road in Ontario.
- A shift to low- and zero-emission vehicles is vital to the fight against climate change and achieving Ontario’s greenhouse gas pollution reduction target of 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
- Green Investment Fund projects include: more electric vehicle charging stations; energy retrofits for single-family homes and affordable housing; support for Indigenous communities, industry and small and medium-sized businesses, and helping local organizations fight climate change.
- Greenhouse gases from cars account for more emissions than those from industries such as iron, steel, cement, and chemicals combined.
Dear Boomer Warrior-montpellier-Colette
Who on earth gave you the idea that electric cars have zero emission.
The only thing that electric cars do is move the emissions from the exhaust pipe to the power station which is most likely coal or oil powered.
Unless you have plenty of nuclear or hydro generation, there is no gain from the emissions point of view.
If electric cars are better than gasoline and diesel, well it would not require governments and tax payers money to keep the trend going.
If you had the slightest understaning of economics, you would understand how foolish solutions like these are.
If these are applied as much as the UN and COP meetings etc require, you will find your grand children out of work and very likely starving. And seeing as how Canada has such lovely winters, possibly freezing as well.
Cheers
Roger
http://www.rogerfromnewzealand.com
Dear Roger – We will transition away from fossil fuels to a clean energy platform whether you agree with it or not. Our grandchildren will greatly benefit from this with both jobs and a cleaner environment. You seem to lack the vision required to save our planet for future generations. How unfortunate. I suggest you look at this article on Transitions – especially a photo of New York city streets transitioning from the horse and buggy era to the automobile. The same thing will happen with E-vehicles and E-transportation.
http://bit.ly/2a8OKyy
Thank your for your interest and comments.
Hmmm, I think Roger, that you are very pessimistic.Ok, right now, electric power generation relies on coal, oil and nuclear for generation, but solar, wind and sea barrage power systems will improve exponentially over the next ten years. Indeed, new materials are being developed that will revolutionise the car industry. Solar absorbant Graphene, super conductors, highly efficient battery storage are all in development (and largely secretive as military defence budgets contribute to some of the development). Cars will eventually be made of super light, super strong solar materials (where the whole car can solar power itself). Today is an intermediary step toward a future that will change social habits as much as canals changed horse and cart transportation and steam trains changed canal transportation, and the ubiquitous ‘container’ system meant that resources could be transported efficiently around the world without losing a third of the cargo to ‘sticky fingers.’ Each new idea was resisted, cost a lot of money (mostly provided by private investors) and some enterprises went bankrupt. But, and it is a big BUT, the ideas prevailed and social demand made them work. Don’t live in the past with ‘Luddite’ ideas Roger; never say ‘never.’
rmontpellier – BoomerWarrior,
“Our grandchildren will greatly benefit from this with both jobs”
Rmont, I understand your desire to see your grand children right, but if you think that the things that we are being asked to do will secure their future, you really need to think again.
Economics happens to be my thing, and where the world is being currently directed is the exact way to destroy economies, jobs and standards of living.
If you greenies have your way we will be heading for a worse depression than that of the 1930’s
Imagine if oil based transport and industry is entirely banned, then think about how food that you need, gets from the seed to, to the farm, to your supermarket and thereby to your mouth.
The difference between canals to steam trains and horse and cart and then to vehicles as we know them appeared in spite of the governments. What is being asked now is that tax payers meet the bill for new ideas in spite of the high cost.
If you think this is pie in the sky, just read up about Communist China up til 1980’s or North Korea today.
To be honest, if AGW dogma had no effect on the general population (which includes me and mine, I would jut tell you guys to go for it. However I have no interest in personally dealing with an economic melt down that you guys are attempting to cook up.
Trust you understand.
Cheers
Roger
The economies of scale have been political as much as capitalistic. ‘Stack ’em high, and sell ’em cheap,’ philosophy has been the undoing of many countries. China has flooded markets with cheap goods for decades. They alone have resulted in steel industries collapsing in smaller nations (like Britain), not to mention many other lines of product. Russia, likewise, exports heap coal and gas to other countries.
It is an insidious attack really. We destroy our own ( financially uncompetitive) manufacturing and embrace imports that have been produced with shamefully cheap labour, so we can have more of the ‘good stuff!’ The Ukraine is currently held to ransom by Russia because it imports all of its gas. No wonder they lost the Crimea back to Russia with little more than a whimper to a non-intersted world (which has no vested interest in fighting for them).
This is not the way forward. China has made so many inroads into other nations, using its economic strength, that we have failed to see the political implications should they want to occupy countries other than its own…they simply have to pull the plug on their exports. We couldn’t function. Without steel, Britain would not be able to manufacture weapons for a defence responce. Think about that for a moment.
While it is a wonderfully romantic notion to think that we are all buddies together in the world, nothing has really changed in human nature. We plunge into wars without warning over often trivial matters or lies perpetrated for political gain.
Most wars, are either based on religion (a form of politics really) or resources like oil and gas.
We have become world wide economies of scale to our detriment. The term ‘think global, act local ‘ is seen as the ‘greening’ having a little get-together in some tiny community, but it is actually a really thoughtful process in how we do business and how we become self-sufficient in a balanced, and sustainable manner.
I actually resent the constant message that ‘if you want cheap cars, heat and goods, you must continue to purchase oil.’ I know that moving to a greener form of energy for all things, will take time and a lot of money. I know I will pay more personally. But it is a cost that I am willing to pay to have a healthy clean world.
Roger – your vision of business as usual until something cheap comes along, will be as suicidal as making do with a rotten lifejacket aboard the Titanic!
Collette,
“I know I will pay more personally. But it is a cost that I am willing to pay to have a healthy clean world.”
“Imagine if oil based transport and industry is entirely banned, then think about how food that you need, gets from the seed to, to the farm, to your supermarket and thereby to your mouth.”
Did you not ponder on this phrase? What if the consequent cost of the food ends up being more than your income? Do you really think you would actually have a job or income in this situation?
Researching what happened in China between the years 1959-62 may be relevant.
Cheers
Roger
Roger, I do not expect a complete and sudden ban on oil. A phasing out period is a certainty. Long or short, eventually transportation will change (like the new high speed electric trains currently fanning out across Asia and Europe, and perhaps more controversially in UK with HS2).
In a circular based economy, we would see more local produce and less world-wide produce. While many would argue that we would not enjoy exotic foods produced in tropical far away places, they are forgetting that food technology is changing. I have seen vast grow houses in Iceland where produce is grown using geothermal energy to heat the greenhouses. Iceland is rugged and dark for many months of the year, yet it does provide for itself.
Your rational is based on no movement in technological advances. It is scaremongering economics to keep people doing the same thing for fear of the unknown. Our polititians tried that tactic with the EU referendum, crying economic doom for us if we leave the EU. Well, Brexit is a reality now, and Britons will have to sit up and take care of themselves again. Will we do it? Of course we will. Necessity is the mother of all invention!
We will make this world work better and be more sustainable – we would be nihilistic to do otherwise.
Cheers,
Colette
mmm
You like nuclear power as well? To power the trains you mention right?
“Your rational is based on no movement in technological advances. It is scaremongering economics to keep people doing the same thing for fear of the unknown”
It is scaremongering, considering the lack of evidence to advertise that the world is heating up catestrophically and the oceons are about to inundate the coastal cities and industries.
My example was intended to illustrate the effect of oil scarcity on our personal lives.
Unless an energy is found that is the same cost or less as currently available and is as convenient or better than present, what I said above is true, subsidies notwithstanding.
IF subsidised but intrinsically more expensive fuels are gradually introduced, the effect will be the same, just slower and I guess therefore more painful.
If you want to go back to subsistance farming, which is an option for sure, just think a little harder.
Dont get me wrong, If a cheaper and more convenient energy source comes along, I’m all for it, but unfortunately windmills and solar still look a long way from meeting that criteria.
Cheers
Roger
ps What sort of boat do you have? I am a sailor as well:)
Nope, I don’t support Nuclear anything, Roger. While it is interesting technology, it hasn’t proven to be safe and that is the crux of the problem here…what is truly safe?
I really do think that our poor choices for economic growth and ‘comforts’ for life, have been at the expense of the planet.
I know that we all depend on oil….indeed I am the first to admit that my narrowboat (an industrial revolution form of goods transportion) that has been resurrected for leisure, is indeed, powered by diesel fuel….perhaps one of the most toxic fuels as recent reports suggest,(though it was touted as a fuel that put very little CO2 into the atmosphere). It is sad that I can’t use an alternative fuel (there are hybrid narrowboats that run part electric, but I cannot afford a new boat of that ilk). I do use four solar panels to keep my domestic batteries topped up….they are quite good, but on cloudy days do struggle. We are not yet at the point (as you keep constantly pointing out), where we can dump all our fossil fuels and switch to solar and wind power. Most people would agree with you on that. But, and it is a big BUT, we have to start somewhere and there’s ‘nothing like the present ‘ to get things done. We must not procrastinate and never start on the journey to develop clean energy.
CO2, as an element, is not harmful! We know it is beneficial to plant growth (which in return gives us our Oxygen). The fight we need to fight, is to bring CO2 to a better level that keeps balance in the atmosphere. Too much CO2 is poisonous to us and much animal life (though some sea creatures that live by volcanic vents, may thrive in a CO2 environment through evolution). I happen to like our planet and would like to see the decimation of land, the depletion of other animal life, and the use toxic substances all come to an end! Lofty goals, I know, but I really worry as I see human population overpower the balance of life on this little speck in the Universe. My fight is not to have every comfort in life, but to save what natural world we have from decimation. If we can bring CO2 to reasonable levels, reduce our toxic footprint and help the few animals that we share our planet with, we will have at least shown a start on the road to recovery.
Intention is everything. Do we intend to recognise our planet as a dynamic, interactive and interdependent biosphere where we give as much as we take (sustainability), or do we intend to continue to strip her of every resource regardless of what dies? Now is the time to make that decision Roger.
Ps- I’m sure that you are going to tell me, that your boat is dependent only on wind power, for sailing! I know that my footprint on this planet could be lighter, and I do try in other ways, so I don’t need any sanctimonious finger pointing please. We can all do better…we just need a little effort from everyone.
Living on a 58 foot by 7 foot boat, is adequate space for 2 people (and perhaps a pet – although we do not have pets). It’s overall footprint for resource use is considerably lighter than an average house. It is too small to buy unnecessary ‘stuff’ and small enough to have a light footprint on power resource (despite the necessary dirty fuel).
I would like to make one more, and final comment here….as banter with Roger is taking up a bit too much time for me!
I do not have children, and hence no grandchildren. I have no vested interest in the future of this planet as I may not even be on it in 20 years. Yet, I feel terrible pangs of guilt when I learn that 40 percent of wildlife has gone extinct in my lifetime. I also feel much sorrow when I learn that key mammals such as Tigers, Lions, Rhinos, and Elephants may go extinct in the wild before I die!
Just this morning, I learned that major primates, such as mountain gorillas are disappearing so quickly now, that they too, may all be gone before I die, as will the Orangutan.
This is a world that I feel ashamed to not fight for….what can be done in twenty years? Lots, if we all want it. I am ashamed of my government that does not fight to keep our world safe for all life. I am ashamed of my fellow citizens who turn a blind eye while other species die out. I am ashamed of my own family, friends and even my partner, who throw their hands up and say…,”Oh well, we have to live, it’s sad that other things die, but that’s life….survival of the fittest!’ We have become a very selfish species and I’m ashamed of the indifference that the human species has shown, especially as we have the intellect to do so much better. We have thrown our gift of ‘high intelligence’s away and become more debased than any other creature on the planet, because we know what we are doing!
Well Colette you’ve hit the nail on the head. Shame is how I got into this activism business in the first place. Well shame and a whole lot of guilt. Many have accused me of making money with my site – I’m in this for the money it seems. Not so. I’ve spent thousands and made a few hundred dollars. Not complaining.
I do this because I too am ashamed about not realizing the harm we’ve being doing decades ago. I too was sleepwalking and going about my daily life as if there was no tomorrow. Well there you have it. There may in fact be no tomorrow for billions unless we wake up. The clock is ticking….