Other goals include new ZEV targets, increased electrification and funding of zero-emission buses and trains

In last week’s Speech from the Throne, the federal government pledged to put more electric vehicles on the road.

Today, it revealed that its plan to achieve that includes the installation of “up to 5,000 additional [electric vehicle] charging stations along the Trans-Canada Highway and other major road networks and in Canada’s urban and rural areas.”

This was just one of the details contained in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mandate letters to each of his 37 cabinet members, which were released today.

Industry electrification, home grants

The charging station goal is among the items listed in Trudeau’s letter to Seamus O’Regan, Minister of Natural Resources.

That letter also includes an objective to “advance the electrification of Canadian industries through new, zero-carbon clean electricity generation and transmission systems and grid modernization, making Canada home to the cleanest mills, mines and factories in the world,” as well as an outline for a “Net Zero Homes Grant of up to $5,000 for newly built homes that are certified net zero-emissions.”

ZEV goals reaffirmed

Trudeau also reiterated the Liberal’s goal to reach “zero-emission vehicles targets of 10 per cent of light-duty vehicles sales per year by 2025, 30 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2040” in his letter to Minister of Transport Marc Garneau.

Elsewhere, the Prime Minister ordered an expansion of the zero-emission vehicle incentive through a “10 per cent rebate on a used zero-emission vehicle up to a maximum value of $2,000,” as well as an intent to “ensure that new federal investments in public transit are used to support zero-emission buses and rail systems starting in 2023.”

Funding for electric school buses

Trudeau’s letter to Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, also include a mandate to “work with provinces and territories to introduce new funding to help school boards and municipalities purchase 5,000 zero-emission school and transit buses over the next five years.”

Trudeau established the practice of issuing mandate letters to each of his cabinet members following his first election in 2015. The aims outlined, if met, would put Canada on a fast track to reducing emissions through electrification within the next decade.