Yesterday in the legislature we debated Bill 28: Zero-emission vehicles act at second reading. This bill was introduced on April 10, 2019.  This bill sets into law the zero-emission vehicle mandate that was announced in the fall as part of the CleanBC economic agenda. It further outlines a credit/debit system, similar to what exists in California, that will allow new vehicle car dealers to meet the provincial compliance targets. In particular, the bill legislates that:

“(a) in 2025 and in each subsequent year, at least 10% of all new light-duty motor vehicles sold or leased in British Columbia must be zero-emission vehicles;

(b) in 2030 and in each subsequent year, at least 30% of all new light-duty motor vehicles sold or leased in British Columbia must be zero-emission vehicles;

(c) in 2040 and in each subsequent year, 100% of all new light-duty motor vehicles sold or leased in British Columbia must be zero-emission vehicles.”

Below I reproduce the text and video of my second reading speech

Video of Speech

Forthcoming

Text of Speech

A. Weaver: It gives me great pleasure to rise and speak in support of Bill 28, the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act. Obviously, I’ll be speaking in strong support of it.

Before I begin, please let me summarize the irony of what I heard during question period today. Question period — when we had a discussion, a discussion emanating from members of the opposition, questioning about the price of gas in British Columbia. We had suggestions from members opposite that one of the ways that we should deal with the price of gas is to bring in a price cap. That was a direct quote from the Leader of the Official Opposition.

You know, what we should have been talking about here is actually the opportunity that’s afforded us now, given the gouging that’s going on. We know that the price of gas in British Columbia, the 40 cent increase, is largely because of refinery margin, which in British Columbia is more than twice what it is in other jurisdictions in Canada. That’s what the real question is. And so, I could actually answer the question very simply that the members opposite asked in question period.

Deputy Speaker: Member, let’s talk about the bill.

A. Weaver: We’ll keep to the bill, but it’s really important to recognize that the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act…. Why it’s relevant to this bill is that we’re talking about bringing in legislation to move towards 100 percent zero-emission vehicles by the year 2040. Right now we’re also in question period, talking about gas prices. What is remarkable is the disconnect between these two.

What we know — and what should have been said and what I was wishing government would have said — is that we do have a role for the B.C. Utilities Commission. Perhaps the B.C. Utilities Commission might start to look at this refinery margin that exists in British Columbia. That is something government could do, and perhaps they will do it in the fall, but now is not the time to be discussing that in detail, because of course, we’re discussing the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act.

In this act…. It’s emerging from CleanBC, which is part of the government and, in collaboration with us, a commitment to reducing emissions, but it’s not really a commitment just to reduce emissions. It’s an economic agenda. This is a flagship proposal in a larger economic vision to position British Columbia as leaders in the new economy.

What happens in this bill, of course, is it builds upon the structure of the pathway towards getting zero-emission vehicles by bringing in place new requirements for car sales in the province of British Columbia. What’s important in doing the car sales is creation of an additional wrapping-around credit-debit system — ZEV units, so to speak — and a whole accounting system, mirrored after what’s being done in California, is being done to ensure compliance and enforcement and allow uptrading and penalties for companies that are having some difficulty meeting the ZEV standard. They can work with other companies that perhaps have less difficulty.

The bill talks about provincial targets being at least 10 percent of all new light-duty vehicles sold in British Columbia must be zero-emission by 2025. By 2030, that rises to 30 percent, and by 2040, that rises to 100 percent.

That’s the essence of the bill. The details, the important details and where the meat of the bill actually lies, is with respect to the ZEV units which are being created — ZEV, meaning zero-emission vehicle — to allow for the compliance of new car dealers in the province of British Columbia.

This is a very aggressive pathway to ZEV adoption. It’s one that we’re very supportive of. It’s one that is much stronger, in my view, than some of the other jurisdictions that have ZEV standards out there. It’s one that’s mirroring what’s happening elsewhere around the world, whether it be Netherlands or the U.K. or India or China, which are moving towards the rapid adoption of non-emitting vehicles and the elimination of gas as a fuel for such vehicles.

Therein lies the irony, which is why, again, coming back to the debate earlier today, it’s important to relate the two. Because here we see, around the world, car companies as well as consumers are moving away from emitting vehicles. They’re not there now, but they’re moving away towards it. Here we have, in British Columbia, an ironic debate, as we’re moving away, as we’re seeing oil companies gouge us with the refinery margin in B.C. that is more than twice the refinery margin of other jurisdictions in Canada.

There is a role for the BCUC to look into this, and perhaps we will look into this. But frankly, for us, in this place, to be debating the lowest-common-denominator politics — the lowest common denominator — talking about introducing price caps…. It’s the wrong conversation. The public…. Both sides of this House should be saying enough is enough to these oil companies.

Now, I recognize that they’ve just been given one of the greatest handouts of corporate welfare in Canadian history, through the LNG generational sellout that this government, supported by opposition, has moved forward. Now, I realize that they’re licking their lips at that corporate welfare, but enough is enough.

While this bill is important in taking us to the pathway towards zero-emitting vehicles, what’s equally important is that the public recognize that now is the time for us not to respond to this oil company gouging. Rather than playing on their terms, let us take this opportunity. Let us take this opportunity to British Columbia to join the rest of the world and show leadership by saying we are not going to play that game. We’re not going to play that game of price gouging.

Maybe we’re going to carpool less. Maybe we can’t afford a zero-emission vehicle. They’ll be coming down because of this bill in price, I can tell you that, because of the requirement to bring here, and there’ll be lots of capacity. The secondhand market is already flowing in British Columbia. Maybe they can’t go with that because they can’t afford it.

But what people can afford is, perhaps, carpooling. They can afford, perhaps, transit. They can afford, perhaps, riding a bike. In the market of supply and demand, if we reduce demand and there is the same supply, that’ll put less pressure on price.

Opposition’s response is to somehow have a massive market intervention by government — to somehow not deal with supply, not deal with demand, but put in a price cap, which is one of the greatest incentives you could give to an oil company to increase prices because the government is on the hook for any price increase. Outrageous. But that’s what we’ve come to expect.

In British Columbia right now, we are leaders in terms of zero-emission vehicle adoption, particularly in the metro Victoria region. One of the most common cars you will see on the road in Victoria is, in fact, the Nissan LEAF, a car that I own, a car that my friend from Saanich North and the Islands owns — he actually two of them, a new one and a secondhand one — and one that many, many people are owning.

In fact, I now own to EVs. We just bought a Hyundai Kona, the new Hyundai Kona which is a 415-kilometre-range non-emitting vehicle. It hasn’t arrived yet because there’s so much demand. We will have no more gas cars in my house.

Yes, we drive all over B.C., and we drive all over the place. We do so without range anxiety. The reason why is that no one should have range anxiety.

Let me say this to you, hon. Speaker. If you’re driving in the interior of B.C., where infrastructure charging is not as good but is growing, and you run out of gas, you’re in trouble. You’ve got to walk perhaps miles or get towed to a gas station.

If you’re driving a zero-emission vehicle and you see that you’re getting low on electricity, you don’t have to worry about a gas leak. That’s not going to happen in a zero-emission vehicle. Electrons don’t leak out of the battery per se.

But if you’re getting short and it’s desperate, just go to a farmhouse and say: “Hey, can I give you five bucks or ten bucks for a bit of electricity? I’m going to run out.”

Interjection.

A. Weaver: Or you can do jerry cans, sure. But you have to hope that the farmhouse has gas in the back. They might. They might, but they might have marked fuel, and that would be a problem if it was marked fuel. Marked fuel you can’t put in a car.

We also know that…. What I’m dealing with, to the member for Peace River South, is the issue of range anxiety. Range anxiety is really artificial. It’s being created by people who are afraid that they need to have a big thing to charge up. You actually don’t.

You can charge up at home on a 120 volt. It takes a little longer, but you often don’t need to charge up for12 hours. If you’re getting close, you plan your destination. It’s no different from planning where the gas stations are. You’re going to drive on a big highway, you notice “last gas station for 300 kilometres,” you check your gas gauge and say: “Nah, I better not go” or “I better fill up now.” It’s no different with an EV.

What has been happening in British Columbia and what is important to do and what I’m pleased to see is being done is that if you’re going to bring in a ZEV mandate — like we have here, an aggressive one — you must match it with a growing and increasing infrastructure. I’m very pleased to see that happening.

Particularly, I’ve experienced that on Vancouver Island with my Nissan LEAF’s 170-kilometre range. On the highway, you don’t quite get that. If you drive a little over 90 — on the highway on Vancouver Island, you can go 110 up by the Parksville area — it’s not as efficient.

However, we now have charging stations in Buckley Bay — fast chargers, multiple fast chargers, there. We have them in Courtenay, Comox. We have them in the Ucluelet and Tofino area. We have them up and down the Island.

So the infrastructure is coming in, and it’s being done in a very methodical pace that’s keeping up with demand. In cities like Victoria or Vancouver, there are so many charging stations that access to electricity is not a problem.

The problem that government is going to need to deal with in a shorter time frame than perhaps it’s thinking about is the fact that there are still far too many charging stations giving the electricity away for free. The reason why that might sound like a good idea is it’s an incentive. You get electric vehicles. That’s one thing. The problem with giving away electricity for free is that there are more and more EV adopters. As more and more EV adopters get into the market, many of them haven’t got the experience of recognizing the culture, the etiquette, the social norms that have been developed by longtime EV units.

That is, you don’t park in an EV parking space and use the electricity just because it’s a convenient parking space. You park in a parking space and use the electricity because you need it, because if you don’t have it, you won’t go anywhere.

This is a problem. We see it all across…. Whether you go to parkades in Victoria or in Nanaimo or anywhere on Vancouver Island or in Vancouver, you see EV charging stations full with people. I call them freeloaders. They’re there charging up electricity not because they need it but because it’s free.

This is a problem. We see it all across…. Whether you go to parkades in Victoria or in Nanaimo or anywhere on Vancouver Island or Vancouver, you see EV charging stations full with people. And I call them freeloaders. They’re there, charging up electricity, not because they need it but because it’s free. That’s a problem, because it then takes up a perfectly good EV charging station from somebody who needs it. This is very problematic with the high-voltage DC chargers.

So it’s imperative that government bring in, now that we’ve got new BCUC analysis of this issue, a more rapid transition to charging — of all EV stations on Vancouver Island and the rest of B.C. — in order to ensure that they’re used when they’re supposed to be used.

When you’re paying 35 cents a kilowatt hour, which is the price that you pay at, say, a Greenlot station — the original Greenlot stations, a few of them that were installed. One’s at Wal-Mart. There’s one in Duncan, for example. You pay 35 cents a kilowatt hour. It sounds like a lot, but it translates to a little over 2 bucks to go from Victoria to Nanaimo. That’s not that expensive.

People have no problem paying 35 cents per kilowatt hour, which is more than three times the retail rate of electricity in British Columbia, to actually charge their vehicles. Because it’s insignificant. And because of the fact that you have no moving parts. You have no oil and gas filter. You have no radiator. You have no exhaust system. You have no moving parts. You have no maintenance.

My 2015 Nissan LEAF, bought in 2014, has had maintenance precisely zero times. I was required, under warranty for the battery, to take it in and have the battery tested — it’s still at 100 percent, no loss at all, and it’s still looking good — because I had to for warranty. But there has not been a single thing, apart from windshield wiper fluid change — not a single piece of maintenance that has needed to be done. No oil filter, no changing transmission fluid, no worrying about radiator, no worrying about coolant. It’s just windshield wiper fluid.

This is the way of the future, and this legislation is positioning us there. I recognize, too, that the single most frequently purchased vehicle in British Columbia is the Ford F-150. I recognize that. That is something that…. In phase two, as we move forward, we’re also seeing an enormous opportunity there. As battery technology continues to improve, as demand continues to grow, it makes sense to initially target the urban markets, where we’re driving, in Victoria, a maximum of, you know, 50 kilometres a day. That’s a lot in Victoria. In Vancouver, even if you drive from Abbotsford to downtown and back, you don’t need anything other than an EV.

So Metro Vancouver and metro Victoria — both of these areas are set up, ideally, for the widespread rapid adoption of electric vehicles. So this legislation, which is essentially enabling legislation that ensures that, if you want to sell new cars in B.C., a certain percentage of those car sales must be zero-emitting vehicles — 100 percent of which must be that by 2040, 10 percent by 2025, 2030 will be 30 percent. Given that we’re about 4 percent now, anyway — very meetable targets.

In fact, the problem is not meeting the targets. The problem is trying to get a car when you go on the lot, because there’s none on the lot. The Hyundai Kona I just bought. I bought it…. Well, I shouldn’t say I bought it. My wife bought it. It’s her car. The one she just bought, she bought a month ago, but we’re not getting it till June, and that’s lucky. We’re lucky we’re getting in June — a three-month wait. Others, a much longer wait.

I know the member for Vancouver-Langara drives a Volt, another excellent EV. I’m sure he’s very pleased with that, although I haven’t seen it on the precinct as often as I used to see it. I know the Minister of Environment drives, I think, an Ioniq, a Hyundai. I think that’s what he drives. I know that my friend here drives LEAFs.

It used to be I was the only person driving an electric vehicle in this Legislature. Now I can’t get in on that EV charging, which is probably a good thing, because I can charge at home, and I know the member for Vancouver-Langara probably has more important need for the electricity than I do here. So I haven’t been using it. It’s been free quite often for you.

Coming back to the CleanBC initiative that led to this ZEV mandate, as well as the timeline for the actual requirement of new vehicles to be zero-emitting vehicles. It’s being coupled, also, not only with the infrastructure rollout, which is going well. I’m very pleased. It’s very well done. It’s really good to see it.

In the Buckley Bay station, for example, there are two high-voltage level 3 chargers, as well as the level 2 chargers, as well as the Tesla charger. So you’ve got lots of options there.

As it’s rolling out, the government is also, as part of CleanBC and the CEV for B.C. program, putting point-of-sale incentives that are up to $5,000 for new electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. And we’re seeing a lot of people, especially with the gas prices…. This is coming back again, coming back to what we had earlier, the discussion in question period. We know for a fact that the price of gas is the single biggest driver of adoption of plug-in, hybrid, zero-emission-vehicle cars. The single biggest driver. We’re seeing that.

You just have to talk to any car dealer. Go to the Hyundai dealer in Victoria. They’re flying off the lot, the Konas, as people come and say: “I’m done with these gas prices.” And you know what? Isn’t that a way to actually drive change, if there are more and more people in British Columbia who say: “I’m done with paying these prices. I’m going to switch over to a non-emitting vehicle”? That reduces demand on the existing supply, and that’s a downwards price driver.

We know the price is going to come down in the fall anyway. The reality of the price of gas right now is that it’s become outrageous. But it’s become outrageous because we know we can charge outrageous prices. We don’t have to blame the little guy, the retailer. It’s not them. We know again, coming back to the refinery margin, it’s twice as much in B.C. relative to the rest of the country. The question the BCUC could and perhaps should be asking is: why is that? Perhaps there is a role for the BCUC at some point to say: “You know what? That’s a problem.” But certainly the carbon tax is something that cannot be touched, and it’s something that the overwhelming majority of British Columbians don’t want to be touched. It’s one cent, but it’s one cent increasing by one cent every year, and that price signal is a critical driver of innovative change.

Just yesterday, I heard the mayor of Langford, Stew Young, on the radio, being interviewed, discussing an industrial park, several hundred acres that have already been zoned, looking to attract, based on this legislation and based on seeing the innovative change that happening, electric vehicle manufacturing in Langford. In particular, there’s a company that wants to build trucks in Langford. This is exactly what legislation like this incentivizes. It incentivizes others to want to be part of this direction, this new economy, and it creates opportunity in areas that we historically did not have.

Electra Meccanica in Vancouver, a small…. To declare everything, Jerry Kroll was a former candidate of ours in Vancouver–Mount Pleasant — the CEO of Electra Meccanica, an electric vehicle car company. They’re going to be building elsewhere. They wanted to build in B.C., but government in B.C. must now recognize that as we bring in these innovative programs that are driving change, there is a role for government to work with local government — that is, the provincial government work with local government — to ensure that we capitalize on the opportunities that this legislation brings forward. That is actually what we need to do next — capitalize on the opportunities that this legislation incentivizes.

You know, British Columbia already has the highest per-capita adoption of zero-emitting vehicles in Canada. There are over 17,000 of them in B.C., on the roads, and about 4 percent, as I mentioned, in 2018 were that. The particular driver of an EV saves…. I mean, the notes I’ve been given here suggest $1,500 a year. I can tell you it’s an awful lot more than that. Say you’re charging a car once a week, and let’s suppose you’re driving a four-cylinder car and you’re paying, say, 60 bucks a week. That’s not an F-150. Say 50 bucks a week. That’s 3,000 bucks a year in gas right there, and you’re paying zero for it because there is no gas.

But not only that. You’ve got to do an oil and filter every six months. You’re looking at 200 bucks there. You’ve got to start doing tune-ups and all that stuff, transmission fluid checks, all that stuff, moving parts. None of that’s there. So, in fact, the argument about electric vehicles saving money and paying off rapidly is often not including the additional savings that come from no maintenance. And there’s a reason why we need such standards. Dealers historically have been very reluctant to sell EVs. Not all, but many. The reason why they’re reluctant to sell EVs…. I mean, you can look at the famous documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? as an example — a very good documentary.

You don’t want to sell an EV because as you buy your EV…. You pay your money, you buy the EV, you drive off the lot, and you’re never seen again. You’re never seen again until you buy your next car. That’s a little tougher for the kind of standard business model that some new-car makers are operating under today. However, those manufacturers and those dealers that recognize the opportunity that’s afforded us here by this legislation, would be the ones that are going to thrive and move forward as we enter.

And I’m pretty sure that Campus Nissan in Victoria will be one of them. They can’t keep LEAFs on the lot. A lot of people think you have to buy a new EV too. Sure, you have to buy a new EV to get some of the incentives, and sure, this legislation only applies to the sale of new cars in British Columbia. However, the secondary market also gets improved by introducing legislation like this. The reason why is that many of the fleets — some of the rental fleets in California, for example — are starting to see these emerging into electric. Or there are lease vehicles. More and more people are leasing electric vehicles.

As these start to build, the secondary market of lease vehicles and rental vehicles, etc., starts to develop as those get sold on the secondary market. You can get a second-hand Nissan LEAF. The LEAF that I bought for about $10,000 to 15,000…. I admit it’s a lot, but if you think of investing, let’s say, $14,000 — because you can easily get a 2015 LEAF for $14,000 on the secondary market — you save $3,000 a year in gas right there. Boom. So you’ve completely paid that off in 4½ years. However, you’re actually going to have no maintenance as well. And most batteries….

People worry that the batteries decay with time. Again, my 2015 LEAF — been driving since 2014 — still has 100 percent battery. I’ve done 70,000 kilometres on that in five years on that — zero CO₂ emitted and still 100 percent battery — going all over British Columbia. You can do this. And it’s fun. And it’s zippy. And they’re fast. The technology in these cars is amazing. I’m very excited by this legislation moving forward.

That was articulated in the media release that my office put out, where we were quite thrilled when the government introduced the bill on April 10. We put out such a release. In fact, I’m quoted in the release as saying: “I’m thrilled that B.C. is adopting a rigorous zero-emission vehicle mandate.” Again, there were lots of discussions with the Environment Minister as we were developing CleanBC, and I would suggest that the level of bold adoption that you see here is something that we were quite persistent on.

The reason why is that 40 percent of emissions for the average household in British Columbia comes from transportation. The average person has a difficult time reducing emissions without dealing with transportation. This gives them a means and a way to go to zero in transportation, relatively rapidly. We also know that without an aggressive ZEV standard, we won’t get the cars on the lots in B.C. because they’ll appear on the lots in California or Quebec instead, where ZEV standards exist.

With China, India and other jurisdictions moving this direction, essentially we know, I suspect, that these targets will end up being moot. If we’re at 4 percent already, getting to 10 percent in 2025, you put the cars on the lot, and we’re going to be there. No question. I would suggest that we’re probably well above 4 percent now with new-car sales. I don’t have the data, but knowing the price of gas at a buck-70 in Vancouver, why would you buy a new car that is not electric? Why would you not consider it? But they need to be on the lots to allow you to buy it, in the first place.

We know that within a decade, trucks, other cars, vans, will all be zero-emitting. That is the direction we’re heading in. I look forward to exploring the details of this further in the actual committee stage because there are complexities in the unit accounting for compliance. There will be questions that will need to be addressed there.

I congratulate government on this — in particular, CleanBC and the Minister of Environment, whose work in this area has been quite well received. And I look forward to the rollout implementation in the weeks, months and years ahead.