Chatting with electric-vehicle advocates in September in Toronto, the federal minister of setting and local weather change, Steven Guilbeault, mentioned it “baffles” him that the Ontario authorities refuses to supply rebates for EVs.

The province is benefiting from billions in EV and battery provide chain investments, he mentioned, however not doing its half to assist the demand aspect of the business by serving to residents purchase EVs.

Ontario is definitely lagging different provinces on the motivation entrance: British Columbia, Quebec and Atlantic Canada provide them. But when Guilbeault can’t perceive why Ontario’s Progressive Conservative authorities isn’t dashing into the EV enviornment with money for customers, he has a selectively brief reminiscence of local weather coverage within the province.

Ontario being too early an adopter on the final huge clean-technology transition isn’t any small a part of why the PCs swept to energy in 2018.

The provincial Liberals wager huge on renewable energy in 2009 with the Inexperienced Power Act. The laws aimed to spice up clean-power manufacturing and construct a homegrown renewables business by providing assured costs to electrical energy producers that used Ontario-made wind and photo voltaic know-how. In different phrases, it paid greater than the market worth for energy to create demand for renewables.

However the pursuit of a made-in-Ontario wind and photo voltaic business was derailed by a 2013 World Commerce Group ruling that discovered the laws discriminated towards overseas corporations.

Compounding the harm, the feed-in tariff program that set fastened costs for clear energy grew to become a serious contributor to Ontario electrical energy costs ballooning all through the 2010s. An oft-cited 2015 auditor-general report discovered that renewables procured below this system value Ontarians $9.2 billion greater than they might have below earlier buying regimes.

Costs for renewables additionally slid significantly all through the last decade, leaving Ontario with uncompetitive long-term contracts. Provinces comparable to Alberta that started transitioning just a few years later confronted far decrease prices.

Excessive energy costs had been among the many hot-button points that despatched the PCs to Queen’s Park with a commanding majority in 2018. The brand new authorities shortly quashed a collection of clean-power tasks and backpedaled on different environmental insurance policies.

It additionally eradicated an EV rebate program introduced in by the Liberals.

Requested final yr about bringing again the motivation, Premier Doug Ford quipped that he’s not going to assist millionaires purchase $100,000 vehicles. He may as properly have mentioned he’s not going to make use of authorities cash to undercut the market worth for automobiles to create demand for EVs.

However the PCs have been eagerly backing supply-side EV investments with authorities money. Because it has performed out, Ontario’s auto manufacturing sector is in an envious place on electrification regardless of the dearth of provincial EV funding for customers.

It could be “baffling” to Guilbeault, however Ontario’s stellar observe report on auto funding this yr is proof that native adoption of EVs isn’t the only metric that Canadian governments ought to be utilizing to trace progress on car electrification.

As the previous provincial Liberal authorities discovered the onerous manner, being an early adopter is dear and never all the time well worth the head begin. The PCs look content material to permit EVs to achieve floor organically, as long as Ontarians get to construct them.