March 2nd, 2020
The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson,
Minister of Environment and Climate Change,
House of Commons,
Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada, K1A 0A6
E-Mail: Jonathan.Wilkinson@parl.gc.ca
The Clean Air Council (CAC) would like to congratulate you on your election and for serving as Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change. The CAC is a network of 30 Ontario municipalities working collaboratively on clean air and climate change actions. Clean Air Partnership (CAP), a charitable environmental organization facilitates the CAC network.
To advance municipal climate action, and to achieve our national greenhouse gas reduction targets, all orders of government must work together. The CAC is keen to work with the Government of Canada to support the implementation of the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, as well as the additional actions aimed at achieving a prosperous net-zero emissions future by 2050.
We understand that the federal government and various partners are working hard to advance the Clean Fuel Standard, which will provide one of the largest GHG reductions in the Pan-Canadian Framework, at 30Mt CO2 eq. The CAC strongly supports advancing energy efficiency and reducing the carbon intensity of the fossil fuel supply chain. However, in addition to reducing the carbon intensity of fossil fuels, the CAC is also very interested in ensuring that the Clean Fuel Standard also serves to advance non fossil fuel low-carbon energy sources and, in particular, the electrification of transportation.
The British Columbia and California Clean Fuel Standards were developed to help level the playing field between fossil fuels and non-fossil fuel energy sources in the transportation sector. There is concern that the CFS will not deliver the needed market signal towards non fossil fuel transportation energy sources. This is because the 30Mt target for reductions slated for the CFS can be achieved largely, if not wholly, through efforts to reduce the carbon intensity of fossil fuels. As such, the sectors producing and providing low-carbon non fossil fuels are likely to see minimal policy-induced uptake of their products beyond current levels. If the development of the non-fossil fuel market is delayed in this way, the CFS will miss an enormous opportunity to make progress on the federal and municipal government's net zero commitments, by failing to address the imbalance between fossil fuel and non-fossil fuel transportation energy sources.
Canadian municipalities address transportation emissions through land use planning, transit servicing and increasing transportation options for their residents. However, they are dependent on the federal government for the national advancement of non-fossil fuel transportation energy sources.
CAC member municipalities represent more than 60% of Ontario's population. With two thirds of Ontario's GHGs coming from buildings, transportation and waste, enabling municipalities to reduce their communities' GHGs is key to achieving federal, provincial and municipal clean air and climate change goals.
Municipalities and the federal government need to be partners in climate action if we are going to achieve the ambitious goals we have set for our communities. The Clean Air Council municipal members would like to develop a long-term collaborative process with federal departments in order to explore and advance carbon-reduction actions.
We would like to learn more about Canada's CFS and how it will address the imbalance between fossil fuel and non-fossil fuel transportation energy. The Clean Air Council would like to request a virtual meeting (causing minimal GHGs) with yourself and others on the Clean Fuel Standard and the other important actions being advanced as part of the Pan-Canadian Framework.
Sincerely,
Gabriella Kalapos
Executive Director, Clean Air Partnership
Co-Chair of the Clean Air Council