Winnipeg, Manitoba – This week, the new Democratic Party (NDP) was sworn into power in Manitoba, giving the province a new premier-elect and a new focus on electric vehicle adoption.
NDP leader, Wab Kinew, stated a more aggressive EV agenda than Manitoba has previously seen.
The NDP’s eight-part plan includes a platform dedicated to the environment. Within this platform, electric and decarbonizing transportation account for 30 percent of the 15 priority items highlighted.
Vehicle registration data from Statistic Canada shows Manitoba added 391 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the first half of 2023. Since Q1 2017, just 1,912 BEVs have been registered in Manitoba.
By comparison, transportation in Manitoba accounts for roughly a third of the province’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. That put Manitoba above the national average of 25 per cent GHG due to transportation.
However, says the NDP, despite Manitoba’s low EV adoption rates, the province has some key advantages favouring electric vehicle adoption. These include clean hydro electricity, low utility rates and a significant amount of existing charging infrastructure to support EV use. (Many parking spaces in Manitoba already have access to electricity to support block heaters — commonly used to maintain combustion vehicles in the winter.)
The NDP says now is the time to seize on those advantages and it has some key points in its platform related to boosting EV adoption in Manitoba.
The NDP’s EV platform goals include: move transit busses off diesel by building more electric transit busses; providing rebates for new and used EVs and plug-in hybrids; build more charging stations; build a clean energy hub to make sure Manitoba is at the forefront of the clean energy economy through a hydrogen-focused advantage; and focus on creating new jobs in electric manufacturing.
While it remains to be seen how Manitoba will build on these plans, the province does have 29 of the 31 key battery minerals necessary in building electric vehicle batteries.
The date for the NDP government to be sworn in is not yet set.
