Electric vehicle rebate among staff proposals to speed up Toronto’s target to become a carbon neutral city
Toronto’s ‘greenest city in the world’ program is well underway, with about 20 percent of the city’s 1,100 employees and volunteers set to go through a three-day, in-office program on electric vehicle technology next month.
The ‘Green City Challenge’ is led by the city’s Green Streets team after an initial pilot in July 2017 that showed the need for changes in vehicle technologies for the public to take advantage of the city’s goal of becoming fully zero-emission by 2050.
“What we found was that people were using vehicles that would be a more efficient but, frankly a smaller solution for the city’s emissions challenges,” says Green Streets Director Kevin Hui, who led the pilot in September 2017.
“I had actually seen an electric vehicle parked in front of the office here. I walked up and spoke to the owner and they said they’d be more than happy to take the rebate. They were already aware of what we were looking for.”
To help push through the program as quickly as possible, the city has decided to give people who use hybrid and EV vehicles the opportunity to get their rebates before this month’s in-office session.
“We’re just hoping this will move more quickly,” Hui says.
For those who don’t have an electric or hybrid vehicle, there’s still the chance to get a rebate for taking public transit or cycling to work. The process for those recipients is underway, and will remain open until September 30.
The ‘Green City Challenge’ is an initiative of Toronto’s City of Toronto by-laws department. The team is led by Green Streets and is comprised of city staff, the Ontario Municipal Board and Toronto Council.
If you’re thinking about buying a battery electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, you’ll want to get your rebate application in before September 30. You may even get it earlier, if you applied for your auto rebate before the deadline for fall and winter 2018.