Toronto, Ontario — As the nation begins a new fiscal year, Ottawa unveiled the 2022 Federal Budget last week, with a number of noteworthy highlights relating to the electric vehicle industry.
This year’s budget came with the hopeful subtitle, “A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable,” and promises to do just that through a number of projects aimed at spurring EV adoption nationwide.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank will make a $500 million investment to aid in developing an EV charging infrastructure, on top of a further $400 million from the Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program, with the aim of achieving the goal of adding 50,000 charging stations nationwide.
The federal government will be investing $1.7 billion in order to extend the Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles Program until March 2025. With this investment, a broadening of eligibility under the program to include more vehicle models is expected to come.
With the aim of providing more EV options to consumers, the government has mandated that at least 20 percent of all new passenger vehicles sold in Canada will be EVs by 2026, at least 60 percent by 2030 and on track to reach 100 percent by 2035.
For businesses, a $547.5 million investment is earmarked to help launch a purchase incentive program that applies to medium and heavy-duty EVs.
Finally, a $3.8 billion investment into the nation’s first Critical Minerals Strategy promises to position Canada well in the world of battery materials.
“On-road transportation represents 20 percent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing that number is going to be critical to our fight against climate change, and by making it more affordable for Canadians to get behind the wheel of a zero-emission vehicle and helping to build the charging infrastructure they can rely on, Budget 2022 will do exactly that,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland.
