Provincial subsidies for electric vehicles are the most expensive, least effective way to help cut greenhouse
Posted Jun 22, 2017 06:28:35 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new study suggests provincial subsidies for electric vehicles are the most expensive, least effective way to help cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The Montreal Economic Institute studied the subsidies offered by the Ontario and Quebec governments and concluded they could cost those provinces more than 17-billion dollars by 2030 and cut emission less than four per cent a year.
Ontario offers rebates of up to 14-thousand dollars on the purchase of electric vehicles.
Germain Belzile — the report’s lead author — says over a decade, a zero-emission vehicle will produce about 30 tonnes less in emissions than a gasoline-powered vehicle.
That means the Ontario subsidy is costing as much as 523 a tonne, compared with the federal carbon price plan, which will hit 50 dollars by 2022.
