Electric car sales expected to plummet in Toronto

It's never been easy for people own electric cars in Toronto, and now an end to a rebate program may see even less of them on the road.

Doug Ford's end to cap-and-trade means the Ontario government won't be offering rebates on electric vehicles or charging stations anymore.

These rebate programs were funded by cap-and-trade and are now scrapped now that their funding has dried up.

We are scrapping the cap and trade carbon tax here in Ontario and opposing other carbon tax schemes in all of their forms. #ThroneSpeech

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) July 12, 2018

The government has made ending measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and incentivize sustainable energy sources a top priority, claiming that the result will be a 10 cent reduction in gas prices and $1.9 billion in savings per year to customers.

Fantastic. Ontario's Cap and Trade will be replaced with a sensible national carbon fee/tax with all the money coming back to household's as dividends/cheques. This is the most popular ctax policy imaginable, and pretty close to what economists would say is the optimal policy.

— Greg Kiessling (@gregkiessling) July 6, 2018

Bureaucratic barriers for owning and maintaining an electric car in Toronto are not new, however, as residents spoke out last year about the difficulties they faced when trying to install residential charging stations.

Can we get a national #ElectricVehicles program now that the Ford government is cancelling subsidies? Sudden ending of the subsidy in ON will kill #EVs in Canada's biggest province and increase carbon emissions! Need Federal action! #climatechange

— Chris Armour (@PMTechGuy) June 30, 2018

There are now calls for the mayor and City Hall to step to the plate and find a way to offer rebates to drive purchases of electric vehicles.