Clean Air Council

Transportation

MTO Data and Community EV Webinar

Through an agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Clean Air Partnership has secured vehicle registration data for all vehicles registered in Ontario from 2016-2020. In the first part of the webinar, we shared some insights from the data. We also discussed the opportunity for community-level comprehensive vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) based transportation inventories for  Ontario municipalities (single tier, lower tier, or upper tier). In the second part, Deborah Herbert, from the City of Toronto, shared their experience so far in implementing the Toronto EV Strategy; we concluded with a roundtable of updates on current EV Strategies from our CAC members.

Recording of Webinar

Presentations:

  • Kevin Behan, Operational Director, Clean Air Partnership, Vehicle Inventories and EV penetration stats for CAC Municipalities (PDF of Presentation)
  • Deborah Herbert, City of Toronto, Implementing Toronto EV Strategy (PDF of Presentation)

Advancing Electric Vehicle Readiness and Low Carbon Buildings in Toronto

This webinar focused on policies and practices related to advancing low carbon buildings in Toronto, including relevant City of Toronto requirements, programs and strategies for EV Ready new buildings.

Presentations

  • City of Toronto Learnings and Approaches on New Net Zero City Buildings & Toronto Green Standard Requirements, Dejan Skoric, Senior Project Manager, Environment & Climate Division, City of Toronto (PDF of Presentation) (Presentation Recording)
  • Solar TO Program: Increasing Awareness of the Solar Potential of Toronto’s Buildings, Nageen Rehman, Program Manager, Environment & Climate Division, City of Toronto (PDF of Presentation) (Presentation Recording)
  • City of Toronto Requirements for EV Infrastructure in New Buildings, Deborah Herbert, Program Manager, Environment & Climate Division, City of Toronto (PDF of Presentation) (Presentation Recording)
  • Strategies to Advance EV Ready New Buildings, Brendan McEwen, Managing Consultant, Dunsky Energy Consultants (PDF of Presentation) (Presentation Recording)
  • Engaging Toronto Hydro and the Connections Process, Aaron Silver, Large Customer and Key Accounts Consultant, Key Accounts, Toronto Hydro; and Bob Hordij, Asset Investment Analyst, Customer Connections, Toronto Hydro (PDF of Presentation) (Presentation Recording)

Resources

Community Engagement Webinar: Electric Vehicles 101

This webinar is part of the City of Toronto’s EV Outreach Initiative, which is delivered in partnership with Clean Air Partnership and Plug’n Drive.

Thinking about purchasing an electric vehicle (EV) for your next car? Cara Clairman, President and CEO of Plug’n Drive, provided an overview of the benefits of driving an EV and how it might fit into your life. This webinar covered the environmental benefits, the total cost of ownership, including available incentives, available makes and models, as well as EV charging at home and on the road.

Cara Clairman, EV 101 – (PDF of Presentation), (Webinar Recording)

Regional EV Charging Network Strategy

The Counties of Wellington, Dufferin, Perth (Stratford and St. Marys), Huron, Bruce, and Grey and the City of Guelph worked together to develop a Regional EV Charging Network Strategy. By working across their jurisdictions, they have identified opportunities for advancing implementation using resources efficiently and increasing efforts to build a cohesive charging network throughout the region. During this webinar, Karen Chisholme from Wellington and Sara MacRae from Dufferin spoke about the actions undertaken in the Strategy’s development and how the collective is working to implement the top actions identified in the Regional EV Charging Strategy.

Presentation:

EV Ready New Developments in Toronto – Workshop for Development Industry

The City of Toronto has new 100% EV ready charging infrastructure requirements for new developments. This workshop provides presentations to hear more about these requirements and to gather input on what information resources would best support Toronto’s development industry in meeting the requirements.

Presentations

  • Brief overview of TransformTO – Sophie Plottel, Program Manager, City of Toronto and Toronto’s EV-ready requirements for new developments – Lisa King, Senior Planner, City of Toronto (PDF of presentation) (Presentation Recording)
  • 100% “EV Ready” Requirements: Why they exist, how to comply, and design strategies to maximize value – Brendan McEwan, Managing Consultant, Dunsky Energy Consulting (PDF of presentation) (Presentation Recording)
  • Toronto Hydro’s role in supporting low carbon transportation – Marc Simmons, Climate Action Plan Project Team (secondment), Toronto Hydro
  • Opportunities & Challenges in Implementing 100% “EV Ready” Multifamily Condominium Developments: ASPAC Developments’ Experience – Jim Twining, Senior Project Manager, ASPAC Developments (PDF of presentation) (Presentation Recording)

Additional Resources

EV Ready Requirements Guide for Municipalities

EV Ready Requirements – Results from EV Costing Study Stakeholder Consultations and City of Toronto Case Study

As part of the EV Ready Costing Study, consultations with municipalities, developers and utilities were undertaken. During this webinar, Gaby from CAP highlighted some of the top findings from those consultations. Michael Hain from the City of Toronto spoke to the City of Toronto’s rationale and process for moving their EV Ready requirements from the Toronto Green Standard to their Parking by-law.

Electric Vehicle Charging and Social Housing Retrofit Supports

During this webinar, The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) presented information on two new programs that support municipal climate actions. The EV Station Fund is targeting the installation of 300 publicly accessible EV chargers across the GTHA and provides rebates of up to 50% of EV charger costs. Panelists Rija Rasul, from Town of Oakville, Jade Schofield from Town of Whitby and Marc Simmons from Toronto Hydro shared their insights on the benefits, challenges, and best practices around implementing public EV charging projects.

Julia Langer from TAF provided information about their new Retrofit Accelerator – a no-cost service to support municipal housing corporations with retrofit planning for multi-unit residential building (MURB) owners in planning, securing financing and implementing deep retrofits to achieve social, financial and environmental objectives.

Resources:

 

Reducing Emissions from Municipal Light-Duty Equipment

Fossil fuel powered lawn and yard equipment have poorly developed emission treatment systems that contribute to GHG emissions, air pollution, health risks and noise pollution. During this webinar, Mitchell House from City of Ottawa discussed the actions the City has completed thus far in preparation for phasing out the use of gas-powered lawn and yard equipment over time. Carrah Bullock and Mary George spoke to the City of Mississauga’s Green Tools Pilot Project.  Juliet Rennick from Clean Air Partnership highlighted some of the efforts and challenges that various municipalities face trying to advance policies to electrify light duty equipment. This webinar also sought input from municipalities that are working on similar initiatives.

Other Related Resources

 

Electric Vehicle Costing Study Webinar

Electric vehicles (EVs) adoption is growing rapidly. Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts that within five years, the cost to produce EVs will be equivalent to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), and lower cost thereafter. Public policy is likewise driving EV adoption, with the Government of Canada targeting the phase out of new ICEV sales by 2035. Achieving local, national and global climate targets will require the near complete electrification of transportation prior to 2050. In response to this quickly growing market, municipalities and developers are trying to determine how to ensure their communities are future proofing themselves regarding EV uptake and readiness.

The Clean Air Partnership has partnered with AES Engineering to develop an Ontario EV Ready New Residential Construction Costing Study and conduct associated technical and policy analysis with municipal, developer and utility stakeholders. This webinar shared the results of the Electric Vehicle Costing Study that speaks to Ontario specific costs and how energy management systems can play a role in reducing costs to developments to achieve EV Readiness. This work is funded by a grant from The Atmospheric Fund.

Equity in Transportation: Peel Community Cycling Program

This webinar shares the opportunities and challenges of creating a coordinated cycling program that leverages municipal government and local non-profit organizations and advances transportation objectives along with broader equity and community-building goals. Brandon Quigley from the Region of Peel discussed the history of the program, and how it has grown from a 2015 pilot into a multi-year program with partners across the Region. Rahul Mehta from CultureLink and Linda Wang from Peel Multicultural Council spoke about how they have been able to reach newcomers and other residents in northwest Mississauga through the Mississauga Cycles project.  Sonia Maset spoke about the Brampton and Caledon Bike Hubs, a partnership between Punjabi Community Health Services, Bike Brampton, the City of Brampton, and Town of Caledon.

Resources

Fleet Meeting – AVL Systems and Anti-Idling Approaches

Fleet managers are trying to improve efficiency via route prioritization and optimization, vehicle tracking, and reduced fuel use. In this workshop, Bhopinder Singh and Jeremy Travers from Peel Region talked about automatic vehicle location (AVL) tracking systems and Peel Region’s anti-idling approaches.

Webinar Recording 

Bhopinder presentations starts at the 0.00

Jeremy presentations starts at 27.52

Presentations:

Sustainable Fleet Meeting – Conversion of larger commercial vehicles to EVs

Municipalities are transitioning towards low carbon fleets. As electric drivetrain technologies and components move into the mainstream market, fleet electrification of pickup trucks, vans, and class 3-5 trucks is still challenging. During this webinar Lightning eMotors presented their solutions for converting medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles into EVs by designing, manufacturing, and installing electric drivetrains.

Lightening eMotors will be part of Sourcewell starting April. They worked through Merx to win the competitive bid with one of Canada’s largest mail providers. They are also participating in the Vancouver bit on battery-operated CCTV CAMERA VAN. This all to say that it is an opportunity for those municipalities who want to do a pilot project.

Resources:

 

EV-Ready Requirements Leading Practices

This webinar reviews the leading practices for municipal EV ready requirements for new construction and discussed the potential policy levers municipalities can use to advance EV readiness standards within their community. Information on cost study data prepared for BC municipalities was shared and information on an upcoming study that CAP and AES Engineering will be undertaking to develop an Ontario EV ready costing study that will compare costs at time of construction versus retrofits post-construction.

Background on the TAF funded Upcoming Ontario EV Ready Costing Study Information

Comparing costs at time of constructions versus what it costs to retrofit post-construction
Archetypes:

  • Multifamily mixed-use condo ~15-25 storeys
  • Multifamily mid-rise condo – ~6 storeys
  • Townhouse development
  • Single-family home subdivision

This project will also include municipal, developer and other stakeholders (architects, electrical engineers, etc.) consultations.

CAP is seeking feedback from municipalities re:

  • Have discussions occurred within your municipality on EV requirements?
  • Feedback you have gathered from those conversations
  • Are you planning these conversations within your municipality?
  • What would help you have these conversations?

If you have any feedback on the above questions or project goals please contact Gaby at gkalapos@cleanairpartnership.org

 

Webinar: Can we really electrify all our buildings & vehicles?

This webinar is part of a series on climate solutions that the Clean Air Partnership is providing throughout 2020. Bruce Nagy, author and host of the series, shared clips from a federal government working session by experts from the building sector, case examples of decarbonized projects, and an overview of electric vehicle impacts.

 

Emerging Technologies, Electric and Autonomous Vehicles

While municipalities are transitioning towards using a low carbon fleet, the need for emerging technology is rising. In this webinar, we learned more about portable solar EV chargers from Andy Ike, Envision Solar. In the second part, we explored the Canadian legal framework on autonomous vehicles. Fahad Shuja from the Ontario Good Roads Association talked about how Ontario is ahead of the curve with its Ottawa-Windsor Preferred Corridor project. Fahad Khan from the City of Toronto presented the Automated Shuttle Trial.

 

Presentations:

Resources:

Transport Canada resources:

Ontario resources:

City of Toronto resources:

EV Charging in Rural Areas

In this webinar, examples of a community-led approach to regional EV charging networks were shared. Jen Grebeldinger, from the Community Energy Association presented their work on Accelerate Kootenays and Peaks To Prairies. These two projects from BC and Alberta highlight actions to accelerate EV adoption within and across rural communities. This webinar highlighted the impact such efforts can have on supporting EV adoption and readiness and advance co-benefits for rural communities in terms of tourism.

Presentation:

Resources:

  • NRCan Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVI) – provide successful applicants with up to 50% of total project costs up to a maximum of $5,000,000 per project for minimum of 20 chargers.
  •  IVY charging Network, Ontario – By the end of 2021, an anticipated 160 Level 3 fast-chargers will be installed at 73 locations connecting north to south and east to west, making Ivy the largest fast-charger network in Ontario.

 

Road Space Reallocation Webinar Discussion

Below is a  summary of the discussion as well as next steps and upcoming actions on the Planning for COVID and Climate efforts to bring all your amazing thoughts and insights together. Just as a reminder some of the hoped for outcomes of this effort include (but are not limited to):

  • Ensuring that there is a Sustainability/Climate Lens applied to municipal COVID Response and Recovery Teams (we recognize that this is only one a number of lenses that will need to be applied to this);
  • Ensuring that who ever is designated on the team to enable the team as a whole to apply that lens is supported in the ability to know how and when it makes to apply it and how they can help their other team members to consider it;
  • In order to achieve those above goals there is a crowd sourced collective effort to explore and summarize opportunities and consideration for how to apply that sustainability/climate lens;
  • There is also an effort to get feedback/input from municipal politicians involved in the new Municipalities Acting Together on Climate (MACT) Network CAP is helping to facilitate so that both a staff and politician perspective is taken into account;
  • Identification and advancement of messaging to other levels of government re municipal input on the need to bring together our COVID and Climate goals (longer term hoped for outcome and success of this hoped for outcome will largely be based on municipal alignment between their COVID/Climate Emergencies response.

Here is the link to the most up to date power point slides compiling input thus far: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SRG-h1xY24uxT1-olX67wmA7zqzKJjuyh_PHfUKk33o/edit?usp=sharing

Re updates to messaging. This was not discussed during our call but was discussed in the afternoon during the MACT Network discussion but just wanted to highlight this update to the messaging:

Just as a summary

POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS

  • Identification of where physical distancing space is limited (anecdotally, community input, crowdsourcing a map/pinch points,  street/sidewalk width analysis)
  • How to apply an equity lens to COVID response re road space reallocation. CAP will be undertaking some research to learn how others are applying an equity lens to their COVID/road space re-allocations). Future sharing on this. Feedback/where a municipality has experience on this please send an email to gkalapos@cleanairpartnership.org
  • Priorities re decision making: conversations within municipalities related to prioritization (physical distancing; more space for outdoor exercise; increasing access to outdoor space especially where green space is not as accessible; bringing people to businesses (ex. downtown); what is the most important considerations, for where and why?

Gaps in Messaging Identified Thus Far

(May still be premature for this discussion. While we may be worried about this taking place, we should not assume that it will take place. Thankfully there are far more calls for ensuring we continue to address our climate change emergency as part of our COVID Response and Recovery).

  1. How to respond to possible arguments re: that we don’t have money for climate because we spent too much on COVID?
  2. One could also say that we didn’t have money for COVID but we found it because we decided that it was worth investing in saving people’s health and lives.
  3. If we are okay investing in saving lives as a result of COVID what about saving lives and protecting our economy from Climate shocks?
  4. How come it is okay to invest/go into debt to save our older and vulnerable populations but we can’t afford to invest in reducing the risks future generations will experience from climate change impacts?
  5. Especially since we know that the younger generation will also be key to paying back these debts?
  6. Climate presents greater and longer term risks to our economy and public health than COVID.

Motivations for Reallocating Road Space

#1: To safely provide adequate space for physical distancing.

#2: To provide an alternative to transit.

#3: To support residents’ physical and mental health.

#4: To build a more sustainable post-COVID city.

Types of Road Space Reallocations

  • Temporary Health Corridors
  • Pilots
  • Pinch Points
  • Curbside Queuing
  • Open Streets/ Slow Streets

Considerations for Road Space Re-Allocation

  1. Emergency vehicle access
  2. Local business/resident vehicle access
  3. Waste services access
  4. Transit vehicle access
  5. Risk of encouraging people to leave their homes or congregate
  6. Equity across mode users considerations: How to apply?

Some Additional Longer Term/Enabling Considerations 

  1. E-Mobility considerations (regulations re children on e-bikes, safety re different speeds) this is a future topic area)
  2. Increased bike parking requirements/theft of equipment/Disinfection guidance
  3. Weather condition consideration

If you can let us know about the following questions and feedback that will help us build upon where we are at present

  • What are some of the conversations occurring within your municipality related to road space reallocations?
  • What are some of the pros/cons/issues for consideration that are being raised?
  • What supports would be of value to facilitate these conversations within your municipalities?