Canadian Legislative Issues

Canada’s largest restaurant chain, Tim Hortons, has installed its first electric vehicle charging station as part of a new pilot project. Guests of a Tim Hortons Restaurant in Oakville, Ontario can now use the charging station free of charge, in efforts to study the technology, the station’s usage as well as further opportunities.  The stations will also be available for use by corporate employees at head office.

Restaurant representatives have highlighted that the goal is to explore and understand the technology, to see how it can work at the various restaurants and how they can support patrons who choose to turn to electric vehicles.

The pilot project has been launched by Tim Hortons in partnership with Oakville Hydro and the Town of Oakville. The Restaurant will be continuing discussions with further municipalities in order to expand the pilot, before making a decision on the future possibility of Electric Vehicle charging stations at it’s over 3,300 restaurants across Canada.


The Honorable Leonard Preyra, Minister of Communities, Culture, and Heritage, on behalf of Energy Minister Charlie Parker, has announced a number of community groups in the Halifax area will receive more than $275,000 in funding.  

The funding is made possible through the Nova Scotia Moves Sustainable Transportation Grant Program, as part of the province’s Sustainable Transportation Strategy. The Strategy aims to provide better transportation choices that promote healthy living and help protect the environment.

Grant recipients include:

• Dalhousie University’s DalTRAC to implement a community-based Share the Road awareness campaign
• HRM’s Smartrip WORKShift pilot project to help encourage group commuting
  
• CarShare Atlantic pilot of two specialized vans for people with disabilities

Minister Preyra highlighted that these, and several other organizations have stepped up to provide innovative solutions to make it easier for individuals to access healthy, safe and accessible transportation choices.


Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger announced that bilingual license plates will soon be available, in honor of Manitoba’s francophone community. The initiative, administered by Manitoba Public Insurance, will be available as of February 25 at more than 300 Autopac outlets across the province.

The bilingual license plate will look distinctive and display the recognizable "bienvenue."  Drivers can switch from their current plates to bilingual plates for $15.  For newly registered vehicles, the cost of either the English or the bilingual plate is $7.