Kingston city staff have identified over $6.5 million in provincial funding lost due to premier Doug Ford’s cancellation of Ontario’s cap and trade program.
The municipality’s yet to be built public works maintenance garage will loose $1.75 million in provincial funding, while a further $2.66 million promised for bike paths and lanes is also gone.
The loss of cap and trade money may also slow the rate at which Kingston adds more electric vehicles to its fleet, along with potentially impacting energy efficiency retrofits to the city’s social housing.
Mayor Bryan Paterson says city staff are now trying to determine alternatives to address the loss of provincial money.
“Do we move ahead with city dollars? Do we put something on the back burner for now — are their opportunities to seek private investment that could offset that?”
This is happening during a time where the city has set ambitious goals to cut carbon emissions by 15 per cent by 2020 and by 30 per cent by 2030.
The City of Kingston has partnered with Flo, Canada’s largest electric vehicle charging network, to build 48 charging stations on municipal property throughout Kingston.
According to the City, motorized vehicles produce roughly 30 per cent of the region’s carbon emissions.
Municipal Environment Director Paul MacLatchy says the work should be done by the year’s end.
“There are 21 different locations at municipal arena’s, parks, recreation facilities things like that. We’ve got about 20 of those installed right now. “
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