The federal government is taking steps to make environmentally friendly cars more affordable -- the latest in a series of green initiatives recently announced by the Conservatives.
Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon and Environment Minister John Baird on Wednesday announced $36 million in funding to urge industry to make more environmentally friendly cars and to encourage people to buy them.
The investments were announced at the Toronto International Auto Show.
The new funding will include $21 million to encourage consumers to purchase environmentally friendly vehicles, and another $15 million to help industry produce them.
Minister Cannon, acting on behalf Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, said the $21 million will go towards the ecoENERGY for Personal Vehicles program. The initiative will provide fuel consumption information in the form of vehicle labels, guides and websites to encourage consumers to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles that are currently available in the market.
The $15 million will go to the ecoTechnology for Vehicles Program and will fund research into a range of advanced technologies such as hydrogen, advanced electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles - -and showcasing them at public events across Canada, Cannon said.
"Road vehicles are a major contributor to domestic air pollution and the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada," Cannon said in a press release.
"The goal of the ecoTechnology for Vehicles Program is to test the effectiveness and safety of advanced environmental technologies for vehicles, share our results with Canadians and help them make informed decisions about the cars they buy."
The incentives would be necessary, industry officials say, if the auto industry is to achieve the voluntary 5.3 megatonne reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions from light duty vehicles by 2010.
New fuel consumption regulations will come into effect for the 2011 model year.
The announcement is one in a series of initiatives the Conservatives have revealed over the past month.
On Monday, the government announced a $1.5 billion fund to help the provinces pay for emissions reductions projects.
Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove told the Toronto Star he would like to see government programs that would provide consumers with incentive to replace old, polluting vehicles with new, efficient ones.
"Twenty-one million dollars doesn't sound like a lot," Hargrove told the Star.
He said he proposed the creation of consumer incentives in a meeting last fall with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
"Jim Flaherty initially rejected it, but then he said that we're already doing that on houses, replacing doors and windows and encouraging consumers to do that by offering to pay some of the costs, so why wouldn't we do that on vehicles?"
