Minister touts PUC's efforts to electrify its fleet of vehicles

Omar Alghabra, federal Minister of Transport, visited PUC Services on Second Line East on Wednesday for a tour of the utility company's main control room and for the opportunity to outline how the federal government’s budget - with ongoing plans for a cleaner, green economy - can help local businesses.

Rob Brewer, PUC Services president and CEO, told SooToday the utility company has already benefited from federal government support in purchasing electric vehicles for its fleet.

The PUC has received six electric vehicles and has another 14 on order - mainly cars and pickups - as well as 22 new chargers in a three to five year plan to electrify its fleet.

“We picked PUC today as a way to illustrate how this year’s federal budget is going to help lead our economy and our society to where we need to be,” Alghabra said, addressing PUC management and employees.

“The global economy is shifting and there is a race to build the clean economies of the 21st century.”

Alghabra said the government’s budget - tabled on March 28 - includes three major tax credits to help businesses introduce clean technology into their operations.

They include:

• An Investment Tax Credit for Clean Electricity, a 15 per cent refundable tax credit for investments in electricity generation systems such as solar, hydro, natural gas-fired electricity generation, electricity storage systems that don’t use fossil fuels and province-to province electricity transmission.
• An Investment Tax Credit for Clean Technology Manufacturing, a refundable tax credit equal to 30 per cent for companies manufacturing clean energy equipment or zero emission vehicles.
• An Investment Tax Credit for Clean Hydrogen to pay 15 to 40 per cent of costs involved with projects powered by hydrogen.

“With these new tax credits and several other measures our government is helping to create good, well-paying jobs for middle class Canadians here in Sault Ste. Marie while growing a clean economy,” Alghabra said.

“The Sault is familiar with blue collar manufacturing jobs but many have disappeared over the years. The plan that we have been working on for the last few years will ensure that a lot of these jobs come back to the Sault.”

“Every time our government releases a budget we ask all of our ministers to travel across the country to meet with Canadians and talk about the various elements of our budget. I’m lucky to be here in Sault Ste. Marie today to talk about one of the three pillars of our budget - the three pillars being affordability, health care and the industrial strategy - so I’m here today talking about the industrial strategy on behalf of our government,” Alghabra said.

When asked by SooToday of the government’s plans for increased public transit as part of a cleaner economy, Alghabra said “public transit is an essential part of our strategy to reduce emissions from the transportation sector.”

“Our government has invested historic amounts into public transit across the country. No other government in Canada’s history has set up so many billions of dollars in public transit infrastructure and we will continue to work with municipalities and provinces on identifying additional support that is needed.”

Alghabra said electrification of public transit and the installation of electric vehicle charging stations is ongoing.

“If there is an application by the local municipality here, certainly we will take it back to our government and talk about it. We have seen projects being funded across the country to help local transit commissions electrify their fleets.”

“It was four years ago that we announced $11.8 million for a smart grid,” said Sault MP Terry Sheehan, accompanying Alghabra on his visit to PUC Services.

“It’s state of the art, the first in Canada. This smart grid is going to be good for the residents of Sault Ste. Marie and make things more reliable and as well we’re not going to have as many outages,” Sheehan said.

“In partnership with the federal government, PUC has become a national leader in grid modernization. Through our shared vision, PUC will have the first community-wide smart grid system in all of Canada,” PUC president Brewer said.

After his visit to PUC Services, Alghabra was scheduled to attend a roundtable discussion with local businesses and Sault Mayor Matthew Shoemaker to answer questions about the federal government’s budget. The businesses include Algoma Steel, China Steel and the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre.