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BCSEA submission on Budget 2026 to the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services

16 June 2025

Re: Budget 2026 consultations – Oral presentation by the BC Sustainable Energy Association to the BC Select Committee on Finance and Government Services, Victoria, Monday, 16 June 2025

Hello Mr. Chair, Madam Deputy Chair and committee members,

My name is Tom Hackney. I am the Policy Advisor for the BC Sustainable Energy Association.

BCSEA is a public interest advocacy group. Our members support urgent action to reduce GHG emissions and transition to clean energy.

We deliver courses on sustainable energy in schools. We stage free public webinars. We intervene at the BC Utilities Commission on energy matters. We have four chapters around BC.

Our three recommendations are:

  1. Maintain and enhance funding for CleanBC and the Roadmap to 2030.
  2. Put a special focus on heavy duty battery electric freight vehicles.
  3. Put a special focus on industrial heat.
 
  1. First point: Funding for the CleanBC and the Roadmap to 2030.
  • BCSEA strongly supports the government’s reasserted commitment to achieve BC’s legislated GHG emissions reduction targets.
  • The recent Climate Change Accountability Report confirms increased efforts are needed.
  • CleanBC and the Roadmap should be adequately funded, both for their planning and convening functions, and for incentives and pilot projects.
  • Funding for planning should be adequate to engage stakeholders in all sectors and develop credible decarbonization pathway scenarios.
  • Incentive levels should reflect the magnitude of effort needed to achieve province-wide reductions.
  • For example, the heat pump and energy coach incentives should be ramped up to levels that will optimally reduce the total emissions from BC’s buildings.
 
  1. Second point: Heavy duty battery electric vehicles.
  • Policies on light and medium duty vehicles seem to be progressing, but heavy duty vehicles need special attention.
  • Emissions from this sector have risen by 26% since 2007, not fallen.
  • There is a gap in technology development and deployment.
  • The BC government should help to bridge this gap, with:
    • policy development and
    • incentives and pilot projects as needed.
  • For example, piloting a megawatt EV charging system for selected routes could be appropriate.
  • Any work on hydrogen or decarbonized fuels should not replace or detract from work on heavy duty battery electric trucks.

  1. Third point: Industrial heat.
  • Within CleanBC and the Roadmap, the government should also put a special focus on decarbonizing industrial heat.
  • Industry causes almost 40% of BC’s GHG emissions, much of it from process heat.
  • The government should support technology development and deployment, including incentives and support for pilot projects.
  • For example, high temperature heat pumps could efficiently replace gas boilers.
  • Thermal batteries can store electrical energy as heat for on-demand process use.
  • Deployment of waste heat recovery and combined heat and power can reduce fuel use.
 

Those are my submissions. Thank you for listening. I would be happy to answer questions.