Canada

Major Developments in 2020

A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy

In December 2020, the Government of Canada announced its strengthened national climate plan: A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy. This plan builds on the work done to date and underway through the 2016 Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (PCF) to further put Canada’s GHG emissions on a strong downward trend, exceed Canada’s 2030 Paris Agreement emission targets and establish the building blocks to achieve net-zero by 2050. In addition to key measures supporting clean transportation to date, the strengthened climate plan builds on existing and contains new measures for the transportation sector, such as:

• Investing an additional 225 million USD over two years, starting in 2020-21, to continue the incentives for zero-emission vehicles (iZEV) programme until March 2022, which provides rebates of up to 3,925 USD on a light-duty zero-emission vehicle (ZEV);
• Investing an additional 117 million USD over three years in charging and low-carbon refueling stations across Canada;
• Working with partners on supply-side policy options to achieve additional GHG reductions from Canada’s LDV fleet;
• Aiming to align Canada’s LDV regulations with the most stringent performance standards in North America post-2025;
• Expanding the current 100% tax write off to include commercial light-duty, medium- and heavy-duty ZEVs;
• Improving the efficiency of heavy-duty vehicles (HDV) standards for post-2025 by aligning with the most stringent standards in North America; and,
• Advancing the government’s commitment to help procure 5,000 zero-emission public transit buses and school buses. To support this goal, the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s Growth Plan has earmarked 1.18 billion USD to expand and accelerate the adoption of zero emission buses.

Hydrogen Strategy for Canada

In December 2020, the Government of Canada launched the Hydrogen Strategy for Canada, a framework that seeks to position Canada as a global hydrogen leader and as a key part of Canada’s path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Development of Codes and Standards for ZEVs

The Government of Canada is contributing 1.33 million USD over 4 years to codes and standards development to help accelerate the demonstration, deployment and market entry of next-generation clean energy infrastructure.

Launch of the Net Zero Accelerators Fund

In December 2020, the Government of Canada announced that it will be investing 2.36 billion USD over 5 years through the Strategic Innovation Fund’s (SIF) new Net Zero Accelerator fund to rapidly expedite decarbonisation projects with large emitters, scale-up clean technology and accelerate Canada's industrial transformation across all sectors, including the automotive and aerospace sectors.

The Global Drive to Zero Launch

The Global Drive to Zero, launched at the 11th CEM in September 2020, aims to enable and accelerate the growth of global zero- and near-zero-emission commercial vehicles.

Investment into the Automotive Sector toward Low and Zero-Emission Vehicle Production

While the COVID-19 pandemic had a disruptive effect felt strongly by the automotive sector, 2020 witnessed significant investments that will position the Canadian automotive sector to pivot to low- and zero-emission vehicle production, including:

• Ford Motor Company of Canada will invest 1.41 billion USD in Oakville to convert it into Canada’s first battery electric vehicle manufacturing facility, and 116 million USD in the Windsor engine plant;
• Stellantis (formally FCA) plans to invest up to 1.18 billion USD in Windsor for an electrified platform. The company will also invest 39 million USD in Brampton for new product variants; and
• General Motors plans to invest up to 1 billion USD to reopen the Oshawa facility for production, and add further production at their St. Catherines facility. St. Catherines also saw investment into a Renewable Energy Cogeneration project.

Outlook

Canada continue to support the adoption of EVs with targeted policies and an integrated approach to tackling climate change.