Canada Minister of Natural Resources Seamus O’Regan, released a national SMR Action Plan, which responds to the 53 recommendations identified in Canada’s SMR Roadmap that was launched in November 2018. Canada’s SMR Action Plan seeks to advance the safe and responsible development and deployment of SMRs through a pan-Canadian approach... Read more →

The Government of Canada has launched its Hydrogen Strategy, a framework that seeks to position Canada as a global hydrogen leader, cementing this low-carbon and zero-emission fuel technology as a key part of a path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Strategy is underpinned by a federal investment of... Read more →

The Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario are each investing $5 million in First Cobalt Corporation to accelerate domestic production of battery-grade cobalt sulfate, a required element needed to produce long-range electric vehicles (EVs). Provided through FedNor’s Regional Economic Growth through Innovation (REGI) program and Ontario’s Northern Ontario... Read more →

Enerkem, with a group of strategic partners including major investor Shell, along with Suncor and Proman, and Hydro-Québec supplying green hydrogen and oxygen, and with the support of the Québec and Canadian governments, is proposing the construction of a biofuel plant in Varennes, in the Greater Montréal area. Varennes Carbon... Read more →

The Québec Government is awarding funding totaling CAD 5.943 million (US$4.55 million) to a non-profit organization Bioénergie La Tuque (BELT) under a program called Technoclimat from Transition Énergétique Québec (TEQ) for a project to develop and demonstrate the potential of producing advanced biofuels from locally-sourced forestry waste in La Tuque,... Read more →

XL Fleet announced that Farmbro Inc., an Ontario-based upfitting solutions service provider specializing in commercial and work vehicles, expects to double its sales volume from approximately 1,000 XL unit installations in 2020 to more than 2,000 in 2021 to meet the increasing demand for fleet electrification in Canada. As part... Read more →

The Premier of Québec François Legault, and the Minister of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change and Minister responsible for the Laval region, Benoit Charette, unveiled the 2030 Green Economy Plan (PEV 2030) and its first 2021-2026 implementation plan, with an envelope of $6.7 billion over five years.... Read more →

Transport Canada has awarded a contract to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canada’s premier nuclear science and technology organization, to develop an assessment tool to examine clean technologies that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the release of other pollutants from marine vessels. The objective of the project is to use... Read more →

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is now operating the largest fleet of electric buses in North America. The milestone comes as the TTC’s third new electric bus model is now road ready and starting to go into service. Our government’s investment in the TTC’s electric bus pilot program is a... Read more →

The Government of Saskatchewan will provide $31 million in funding for a Rare Earth Processing Facility in Saskatchewan, delivering on a key element of the 2030 Growth Plan. The facility will be owned and operated by the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC). It will be the first-of-its-kind in Canada and will... Read more →

Canada Nickel Company Inc. has created a wholly-owned subsidiary, NetZero Metals, to begin the research and development of a processing facility that would be located in the Timmins, Ontario region with the goal of utilizing existing technologies to produce zero-carbon nickel, cobalt and iron products. The Company has applied for... Read more →

A study to advance regional understanding of the role hydrogen could play in the Maritimes’ energy transition is now underway as part of a collaborative effort being led by OERA and funded by Heritage Gas Limited, Liberty Utilities, the Nova Scotia Department of Energy & Mines and the Atlantic Canada... Read more →

New research by the IHS Markit Canadian Oil Sands Dialogue shows that the combined greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of Canadian oil sands projects has declined 20% from 2009 levels. The new analysis, using most recent data available, shows trends remaining in line with previous IHS Markit projections that oil sands... Read more →

Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) unveiled its first 21 Proterra electric buses and brand-new, purpose-built electric bus garages. ETS has 19 more Proterra buses on the way this year to make up a 40-bus fleet, one of the largest purchases of electric buses in Canadian history. With this deployment, ETS also... Read more →

Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, announced a $770,000-investment to help Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro build 28 electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the province. The federal funding, which builds on $1,289,400 the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is investing in the project, is provided through the Electric Vehicle and... Read more →

Coach Atlantic Maritime Bus is the first to test MCI’s first all-electric coach—the MCI D45 CRTe LE CHARGE, designed for long-range express routes—in Canada. MCI D45 CRTe LE CHARGE MCI and Coach Atlantic Maritime Bus will pair for a 9-11 March demonstration tour on Maritime Bus regular routes, inviting passengers... Read more →

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is seeking expressions of interest from firms which wish to enter into a commercial licensing arrangement to bring to market its methane oxidation catalyst. This technology has applications to the automotive industry and other sectors covered by regulations that control methane emissions. NRCan said the ideal... Read more →

Hydro-Québec operates some 60 hydroelectric generating stations, making it one of the largest hydroelectricity producers in the world. Decarbonizing the economy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one of the company’s priorities. In addition to having access to Québec’s vast water resources to generate green, renewable power at competitive... Read more →

The Government of Alberta, Canada, is now allowing curtailed operators to drill new conventional oil wells without being restricted by production limits. Existing producing wells will remain under curtailment. The government said that this measure will drive positive investment, lead to increased drilling activity, and support economic growth in communities... Read more →

SEA\LNG, the multi-sector industry coalition accelerating the widespread adoption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a marine fuel, welcomed Canadian LNG provider FortisBC to the growing coalition. FortisBC brings to the coalition nearly 50 years’ experience in LNG production in Western Canada. It owns and operates two LNG facilities on... Read more →

Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Amarjeet Sohi announced a $2-million investment in a $5.1-million Canada Mining Innovation Council (CMIC) initiative to develop an energy-efficient mining technology that could significantly reduce energy consumption at mine sites, cut costs and make remote mining operations more productive. Crushing and grinding rocks into smaller... Read more →

Sales of all zero-emission vehicles in Canada for the first six months of 2019 are up 30% compared with last year. Zero-emission vehicles represented roughly 3% of all new, light-duty vehicles sold in the first half of 2019, compared to roughly 2% during the same period in 2018. Since 1... Read more →

New Flyer Industries Canada, a subsidiary of NFI Group Inc. (NFI), one of the world’s largest independent global bus manufacturers, announced the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) and Brampton Transit have jointly secured $11.15 million in federal funding from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to support the adoption... Read more →

Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Amarjeet Sohi, announced a new $4.5-million Impact Canada challenge aimed at accelerating made-in-Canada battery innovation to better position the country in the highly competitive global market. The Charging the Future Challenge was announced during the 2019 Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference (EMMC), held in Cranbrook,... Read more →

The Government of Canada is investing $275 million to support LNG Canada’s major liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex in Kitimat, British Columbia. This $40-billion project represents the largest single private sector investment in the history of the country. The federal investment will include $220 million to help fund highly energy-efficient... Read more →

Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, and the Chair of the California Air Resources Board, Mary Nichols, today signed a new cooperation agreement to advance cleaner vehicles and fuels. The transportation sector is the source of nearly a quarter of Canada’s carbon emissions and more than 40%... Read more →

Canadian oil sands production is set to enter a period of slower annual production growth compared to previous years. Nevertheless, total production is expected to reach nearly four million barrels per day (mbd) by 2030—nearly one million more than today, according to a new 10-year production forecast by business information... Read more →

British Columbia’s Zero-Emission Vehicles Act (ZEVA), passed on 29 May, will require all new light-duty vehicles sold in the province to be zero-emission vehicles by 2040. This target will be met using a phased-in approach: 10% of new light-duty vehicle sales by 2025, 30% by 2030 and 100% by 2040.... Read more →

New Flyer Industries Canada ULC, the Canadian subsidiary of NFI Group, announced an award from the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) for an additional ten forty-foot, zero-emission, battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE heavy-duty transit buses. TTC New Flyer Industries XE40 Xcelsior electric demo bus. This award follows on the original TTC order from... Read more →

The Electric Circuit, Hydro-Québec’s public charging network, announced that fast-charge stations will now be deployed more quickly with the rollout of approximately one hundred new fast-charge stations. Over the next 10 years, 1,600 new fast-charge stations will be deployed in Québec. In June 2018, the National Assembly unanimously adopted An... Read more →

Nova Scotia-based Elcora Advanced Materials Corp. has been awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)-ENGAGE grant with Dr. Heather Andreas, an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Dalhousie University. The project will focus on studying Elcora’s high-quality graphene as an electrode material for supercapacitors.... Read more →

The provincial government has put British Columbia on a path to require the sale of all new light-duty cars and trucks to be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by the year 2040. The government will introduce legislation next spring to phase in targets for the sale of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). This legislation... Read more →

Walmart Canada plans to power its fleet using 100% alternative power by 2028. To meet that goal, the company has announced plans to acquire an additional 30 Tesla 18-wheeler semi-trucks, building on its original order of 10 trucks in November 2017. With 40 Tesla Semis in total, the company will... Read more →

BAE Systems, a global provider of more than 9,000 electric-hybrid, battery-electric, and fuel-cell electric systems, announced that the Association du Transport Urbain du Québec (ATUQ) ordered 497 electric-hybrid buses using the BAE Systems Series-E electric drive propulsion system (earlier post). The five-year contract includes an option for up to 1,028... Read more →

Volkswagen Group Canada has formed Electrify Canada, a new company that will build an ultra-fast electric vehicle (EV) direct current (DC) charging network across Canada. Volkswagen expects the network to be operational starting in the second quarter of 2019. The mission of Electrify Canada is similar to that of Electrify... Read more →

Canada’s Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau, announced an investment of $25,000 for a University of Windsor project called “Hydrogen Enabled Low-Emissions and Fuel Efficient Diesel Engine Combustion Technology for Clean Locomotives”. The project will help to develop an experimental diesel engine that is capable of running on blends of hydrogen... Read more →

The Toronto Transit Commission, the third largest transit agency in North America and the most heavily used system in all of Canada, purchased ten Proterra Catalyst E2 buses in support of the transit agency’s goal to convert its entire fleet of 1,926 buses to zero-emission buses by 2040. Canada has... Read more →

The Québec government is investing a total of $130 million ($80 million in capital stock and $50 million in bonds) as part of a $-1.1 billion financing effort to commission a spodumene (lithium ore) mine at Nemaska, 300 km north of Chibougamau in Eeyou-Istchee James Bay territory. In addition, a... Read more →

The Government of Canada will purchase Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline system and the expansion project (TMEP) for C$4.5 billion (US$3.46 billion); Kinder Morgan has agreed to work with the Government of Canada to seek a third-party buyer for the Trans Mountain Pipeline system and TMEP. The 1,150-km (714-mile) Trans... Read more →

Alberta Innovates, in partnership with industry, government and other organizations, recently released the results of a study that investigates the best opportunities for “Bitumen Beyond Combustion” (BBC). Following a 2017 report that identified potential products that could be made from Alberta oil sands bitumen, this new study identifies the top... Read more →

The Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial: Phase I was launched at TransLink in Vancouver as part of a national coordinated effort to advance zero emissions transit technology, spear-headed by the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC). The $40-million project encompasses 18 standardized and interoperable electric buses,... Read more →

The British Columbia Government Ministries of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources and Jobs, Trade and Technology has awarded ITM Power a grant to undertake a Power-to-Gas (P2G) feasibility study. In the initial phase of the project, ITM Power will undertake a techno-economic feasibility study for the large-scale centralized production of... Read more →

Québec Minister of Sustainable Development, the Environment, and the Fight Against Climate Change Isabelle Melançon has issued the final regulations in support of Bill 104 – An Act to increase the number of zero-emission motor vehicles in Québec in order to reduce greenhouse gas and other pollutant emissions. (Earlier post.)... Read more →

Hydro-Québec and the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have agreed to explore collaborations toward the research and development of manufacturing and scale-up technology to advance transportation electrification and energy storage. The two institutions have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to assess the feasibility of... Read more →

The Canadian province of Ontario is electrifying its GO rail network to transform how people move around the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), and is seeking design concepts for hydrogen-powered trains as an alternative to conventional overhead wires. A division of Metrolinx, GO Transit is the regional public transit... Read more →

Leclanché North America, part of Switzerland's Leclanché SA; eCAMION, based in Toronto; and SGEM, based in Geneva; will partner to develop and to install a network of 34 fast-charging stations along the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH). The project, designed to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in Canada, entails an investment... Read more →

Royal Dutch Shell plc announced the completion of two previously announced agreements by Shell Canada Energy, Shell Canada Limited and Shell Canada Resources (Shell) that will see Shell sell all its in-situ and undeveloped oil sands interests in Canada and reduce its share in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP)... Read more →

The Government of Canada is moving forward with provincial and territorial partners, industry and stakeholders, to develop a national strategy to increase the number of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVS)—battery electric, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles—on Canadian roads by 2018. Transportation accounts for about 24% of Canada’s emissions, mostly from... Read more →

Alberta Innovates has teamed up with Natural Resources (NRCan) and industry partners to take three clean oil sands technologies to commercial demonstration. This announcement is a result of NRCan’s Oil and Gas Clean Tech Program. NRCan is contributing $21 million and Alberta Innovates is investing $5.2 million, for a total... Read more →

Ford is investing an additional C$500-million (US$375 million) in its Canadian research and development presence, adding connectivity software and hardware engineers and establishing a new Ottawa Research and Engineering Center. Ford is adding more than 400 connectivity engineers in Canada and the US—approximately 300 of whom will be based in... Read more →