Ontario to Permit Low Speed Electric Cars on Roads, with Additional Rules

[SVOboy]

Canada’s most populous province is finally following the lead of British Columbia and Quebec in permitting low speed electric vehicles (LSV’s) to be driven on public roads.* Canada’s LSV class is based on the Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle class in the U.S., where 44 states permit their use (as of May 2008). However, Ontario vehicles and their [...] Related posts:

1. EcoDriving 101 - Reducing Speed
2. 10 Electric Cars You Can Buy Today
3. Mitsubishi Will Make 2,000 iMiev Electric Cars in 2009

More...

[MazdaMatt]

Sheesh, finally... Maybe we can start building some in all those auto plants we've been losing!

I don't like that it MUST HAVE pedestrian warning sound and backup beeper in addition to a manual horn... but i suppose if they are catering to ALL of the naysayers, it gets the ball rolling faster.

[MetroMPG]

I actually read through the entire report the province commissioned by the NRC, and one of the recommendations is that the province roll out the new rules as a "pilot project".

I have to wonder just how many private citizens will fork over the dough for these $16k vehicles (think that's the cost of a basic ZENN) when there's a chance they may not be able to continue driving them after the pilot expires (if it's not made a permanent thing afterward).

[MazdaMatt]

Ontario is also currently doing a "pilot project" on allowing electric bikes on the road. I've seen quite a few of them around London... zippy little things with some pretty neat styling. I'd love to have one, but the decent ones are pricy. Since we are down to one car, maybe i'll get the girlfriend one in the spring.

[orange4boy]

Good for them. Hopefully there will be a snowball effect in the rest of the country.

If we had a Government with the slightest will to actually support electric vehicles there would have been a national policy years ago. This piecemeal approach is their way of doing the minimum and hoping the electric car disappears. At the same time our government is "harmonizing" many regulations with the US (read changing Canada's regs to the US regs) The provinces are working on a free trade deal between themselves, again to "harmonize" regulation. Why does the LSV get patchwork regs? So much for democracy. So business gets de-regulation, citizens get tighter border restrictions and big brother. NICE.

In addition, There has not been a national building code change yet for EV plugs in homes, just piecemeal municipality changes.

They don't want them but they want to look like they do.

[MazdaMatt]

Mods, the above post has a hidden link... please beat the poster to death... or ban them

[Peter7307]

Originally Posted by orange4boy

The provinces are working on a free trade deal between themselves, again to "harmonize" regulation.

So if I am reading this the right way there is "no free trade between provinces" in Canada?

Is that right?

Pete.

[orange4boy]

The TILMA is a document mostly about non tarriff barriers to trade. This is fancy language for regulations that corporations don't like. Don't thank your local media for letting you know what this all means because they didn't.

Here is a quite from The Council of Canadians website giving a backgrounder on the TILMA:

TILMA is a legal document that gives special rights to individuals and corporations to sue provincial governments and their official agencies over any rules, regulations or other government measures that they feel “restrict or impair” their trade or investment (i.e. profits). Under TILMA, even provincial or municipal policies designed to protect the environment and public health from corporate abuse are vulnerable to attack from such lawsuits.

When TILMA came into effect on April 1, 2007, it established a legally binding process for parties to the agreement—the provinces, as well as private individuals and corporations—to challenge:

Government programs and regulations if they “restrict or impair” investment (Article 3)
Regulations in one province that are different from those in another (Article 5.1)
The establishment of new, stricter regulations (Article 5.3)
Initiatives by one province that the other does not agree with (Article 7.2)
All disagreements over whether a government measure constitutes a restriction on profits will be arbitrated by independent NAFTA-style panels with the power to penalize governments with fines as high as $5 million. Unlike the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), there is no screening process in TILMA for frivolous complaints, and governments can be hit with repeated complaints against the same program or regulation.

So, keeping on track here, Someone could sue the City of Vancouver for their new EV charging plugs in 20% of condos by-law if they could prove one of the above articles.

Bye bye, democracy, It was nice suing you.

[MazdaMatt]

Originally Posted by Peter7307

So if I am reading this the right way there is "no free trade between provinces" in Canada?

Is that right?

Pete.

No, that's not right. There are no tarrifs when shipping cross country and there are no border stops if you're driving. Actually, if I buy from BC I'm pretty sure I don't pay provincial tax in BC or Ontario.