Ontario will spend up to $8.3B to fight climate change, offer incentives

Ontario's action plan on climate change will includefinancial incentives to get cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks
on the roads and to convince homeowners and businesses to lowertheir carbon footprints, The Canadian Press has learned.

The plan, scheduled to be releasedon Wednesday, calls forgovernment spending of $5.9 billion to $8.3 billion on climatechange initiatives over the next five years.

No one will have to stop using gas in their home or give up theirgas-powered car by a certain date.Ontario Climate Change Action Plan

The money would come from the $1.9 billion the Liberal governmentexpects to raise each year by auctioning off pollution emissioncredits when Ontario joins a cap-and-trade market with Quebec andCalifornia next January.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray saidTuesdaythat the government's plan will add about $5 a month to home heatingbills and 4.3 cents a litre to the price of gasoline.

The province opted not to impose a zero-emissions vehiclemandate, which means it won't impose penalties on automakers thatdon't produce enough electric and hybrid cars.

Instead, Ontario will continue to offer rebates of up to $14,000for electric vehicles, including up to $1,000 for installing a homecharging station, and will provide free overnight charging forresidential customers for four years, starting in 2017.

"The final release of the document will give you a sense of howinvested we are in making those cars very cost competitive, andequal to or lower than conventional technology (cars) at the pointof sale," said Murray.

"There's a whole bunch of popularly priced vehicles right now,and we'll be doing some things to make fuelling them inexpensive aswell."

Incentives for low and moderate income households

The province will also talk with the federal government aboutremoving the HST from battery-powered vehicles, which it hopes to doby 2018.

There will also be incentives to help low and moderate-incomehouseholds to replace old cars with new or used electric vehicles ora plug-in hybrid.

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The goal is to have five per cent of new car sales in 2020 beelectric or hydrogen powered, which would be about 14,000 vehicles.Ontario currently has 5,800 electric vehicles licensed in theprovince, less than half of one per cent of all vehicle sales.

The climate change action plan does not call for phasing out theuse of natural gas for heating, but there will be money forhomeowners if and when they do decide to switch to newertechnologies such as geo-thermal and heat pump systems.

Natural gas which heats 75 per cent of Ontario homes willcontinue to rise in price as governments put a price on carbonemissions, and the government believes consumers will eventuallylook for cheaper alternatives to their gas furnaces and waterheaters.

"There has to be net-zero (carbon) buildings by 2030, and thatinvolves a number of technologies," said Murray. "There are anumber of builders out there who are building ultra-low or reallynet zero buildings right now."

The government will need to work with municipalities so theprovincial building code and local regulations are aligned to ensurenet zero homes are built, added Murray.

"The construction industry is ahead of us," he said. "Theyhave dozens of examples of net zero buildings using a whole range oftechnologies."

'Changing their spin'

The Progressive Conservatives aren't convinced by the Liberals'denial of an earlier report saying they do want to ban the use ofnatural gas for heating.

"They're not backing off, they're changing their spin," said PCenergy critic John Yakabuski.

The province will spend up to $100 million to help natural gassuppliers create more fuelling stations to encourage more trucks touse the fuel instead of diesel or gasoline.

The idea is to give consumers a choice, not to force theminto making changes.

"It will not take away personal choice," reads the action plan."No one will have to stop using gas in their home or give up theirgas-powered car by a certain date."

The province already announced the plan includes $900 million toretrofit social housing and apartment buildings with such things asenergy-efficient windows and thermal insulation on pipes.

It also offers $100 million to help municipalities and companiesrecover methane from landfills, green bins, manure and sewagetreatment plants and turn it into so-called renewable natural gas.

Ontario's goal is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15per cent from 1990 levels by 2020, by 37 per cent in 2030 and by 80per cent in 2050.