Driving Canada's Zero-Emission Transit Ambitions – a national issue for all federal political parties

For a decade now, the youth of our generation have been scolding adults. The most famous climate activist, Greta Thunberg, has declared, “Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money.”

Young people aren’t stopping at words, either. They’re going further – all the way to court. And they’re making progress.

In 2019, 15 young people sued the Government of Canada for its contributions to global warming and its failure to implement a serious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Although courts originally denied the claim, in 2023 the federal Court of Appeal overturned the rejection and allowed the case to proceed.?

Now the group will be filing an amended version of the original lawsuit, and it’ll be up to us – Canadians and the Canadian government – to respond in a way that respects the right of all Canadians, no matter how young, to a safe life in a climate-changed world.?

That case could still fail or it could get the green light, and then we’ll have our first Canadian climate lawsuit going to trial.?

It would be the first time a federal class action lawsuit goes to court on the basis of government inaction on climate change, making it harder for any federal or provincial political party to avoid climate policies like long-term carbon pricing that is aimed at shifting behaviours away from fossil fuels towards alternative fuels.

If we think this is a one off case, let’s think again.?

A separate group of seven youngsters has made a historic climate case recently at Ontario’s Court of Appeal challenging the government’s decision to weaken its 2030 emissions targets. Its decision is pending.?

This group is also arguing it’s protecting youth from climate harm using the power of the law. This case was first dismissed in April 2023 by the Ontario Superior Court, but in that decision Justice Marie-Andrée Vermette agreed climate change will have a disproportionate impact on youth and Indigenous Peoples. The judge also found Ontario is risking the health and lives of Ontarians by setting a low target for the imminent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Only time will tell if the appellate court thinks the case is strong enough to allow on behalf of all Ontarians.

The Government of Canada under Justin Trudeau’s Liberals has moved forward with aggressive actions on net zero and carbon reducing policies across the board – from penalizing emissions in the fossil fuel industry through its Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) to subsidizing zero-emissions public transit through its Zero Emissions Public Transit Fund (ZETF).

Canadians might be polling negatively for the federal government today, but history books will show this government has launched more policies that are more aggressive in the pursuit of climate action than any other government in the history of Canada. And that might mean something to a generation of youth growing up with forest fires ad nauseam, disappearing winters, and climate anxiety – a generation of young people whose soon-to-launch careers will almost certainly be shaped by sustainability politics in some way.?

A federal government that backtracks on climate policy might win some temporary votes. But it will likely face backlash in the form of more and more expensive civil suits in the future for failing Canadians in the protection of their lives.

Today, these lawsuits reflect more than morality – they are also reflecting the economic realities of the country.?

Take the example of public transit. The launch of the federal ZETF program has single handedly transformed the entire transit industry, aligning Canadian transit manufacturing with trends in the United States. Canada’s $2.75 billion program has supported nearly every battery electric bus purchased in the country in the past three years and most of the electric school buses too.? It’s the single largest reason the nation’s public transit system is going green, moving production and adoption away from traditional diesel buses to battery electric and hydrogen electric buses everywhere.?

City councils have invested hundreds of millions of tax dollars into transforming their systems to tackle pollution. Aged and dirty infrastructure is being ripped out and replaced with “green” chargers, hydrogen fuelling stations, electric and hydrogen buses and small “smart” shuttles and on-demand mobility. Depots are being overhauled. Staff are being retrained. Electrical utilities are ramping up to be the energy providers of the future, booting petrochemical fuel providers from long-term fuel contracts with municipalities.

Trying to turn the ship around now is an exercise in economic futility no matter how dedicated a party or government might be to anti-climate action policies.

Apart from being a costly U-turn for taxpayers, and causing a loss of more than half a decade of robust technology deployments nation-wide in zero emissions and clean public transit, it’ll delay overall transit investments at a time when more – much more – transit investment is needed in Canada’s major cities to accommodate existing riders let alone inbound immigrants each year.?

At CUTRIC, we have seen the depth of the investments up close – we’ve led a national nonprofit technical planning program to measure, predict and track every zero emissions bus in the country and their allied chargers and hydrogen fuelling. From TransLink in Vancouver to Codiac Transpo in Moncton, New Brunswick, our team has had a chance to model, assess, predict and plan out the decarbonization of thousands of buses in small, medium and large systems nationwide as the Government of Canada's National Planning Service for the ZETF program.

What we’ve seen is billions in combined investments already made or committed to go green and to overcome the complexities of new energy systems. We’ve seen a wholesale shift in industrial investments in manufacturing, production and supply chain development by powerful industry partners such as ABB, Siemens, New Flyer Industries, Volvo Group, Ballard Power Systems, Atura, Enbridge Natural Gas, BC Hydro, ChargePoint, Transdev, and dozens more.

We’ve seen significant investments by utilities such as Fortis AB, which has co-funded a massive study to predict the energy pull from nine “green” public transit agencies in Alberta, including Airdrie, Banff/Bow Valley, Fort Saskatchewan, Hinton, Leduc, Rocky View, Spruce Grove, Strathcona County and Whitecourt.?

Public transit systems are powering forward unfettered by the winds of potential policy change. In Vancouver, TransLink has planned a transition of its bus fleet to zero emission vehicles by 2040 and it already has dozens in the pipeline, alongside Saskatoon Transit in Saskatchewan. In Ontario, Burlington Transit and the London Transit Commission along with Codiac Transpo have formed a national joint procurement initiative for electric buses and chargers to shift their fleets fully by mid-century as well. The hyper-local transit services in Cochrane, Alberta are shifting to low-emissions on-demand services.?

Preventing the climate from overheating while deploying better transit services for a diversity of Canadians is already underway. Reversing course now would destroy billions in taxpayer and industry investments already made.?

Perhaps more importantly, it may also lead to expensive future legal battles between the people and their government.?

If these investments don’t happen and happen fast, the kids won’t be alright. But they will be ready to sue, and to win.