CUTRIC congratulates the Government of Ontario on the launch of its highly anticipated Hydrogen Strategy. Ontario’s vision for the low-carbon hydrogen strategy is to develop a self-sustaining hydrogen economy in Ontario that would drive innovation, create green jobs, attract new investment and reduce the province’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Ontario government’s announcement aims to increase the province’s hydrogen production capacity by identifying hydrogen hub communities and launching the Niagara Falls Hydrogen Production Pilot.

This is welcome news for pioneering transit systems like MiWay, who is on the verge of implementing Canada’s first hydrogen fuel cell electric bus (FCEB) demonstration trial in over ten years. With the country’s densest transit interconnections, Ontario must now look to scalable demonstration and integration projects to bring down the cost of hydrogen to be on par with diesel. FCEBs continue to be the most promising end-use technology with immediate potential to enable the launch of an end-to-end clean hydrogen value chain.

We also congratulate our members Cummins’ and Enbridge for their mention in the Hydrogen Strategy and their work in research and development, innovation and manufacturing. Cummins is the leading developer of large-scale proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzer equipment for the production of low-carbon hydrogen. Enbridge Gas and Hydrogenics (bought by Cummins) built the first large-scale low-carbon hydrogen facility in Markham, Ontario, which was commissioned in 2018. These companies and other CUTRIC members are already global leaders in the hydrogen economy, and are helping to place Ontario at the forefront of clean energy development.

We now urge the Ontario government to take further action to support scalable, mass-transit demonstration and integration projects to secure innovation and environmental benefits for all Ontarians. CUTRIC and its members recently put forth in an open letter to the government asking for increased investment through dedicated funding programs to support industry projects related to hydrogen production, distribution, and end-use applications to demonstrate the feasibility of hydrogen fuel. Investing in the industry, through a series of well-funded programs, will be critical to securing long-term economic and environmental benefits – and will help establish the Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan as a global and national leader.

“Transportation is responsible for more than 25 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. Public transit is the gateway to reducing pollution from the heavy duty transportation sector. If this government is serious about advancing the hydrogen industry, it needs to invest in a hydrogen-based transit demonstration project in the immediate future,” says Josipa Petrunic, President & CEO of CUTRIC.

About CUTRIC

CUTRIC is a non-profit innovation consortium with a vision to make Canada a global leader in low-carbon smart mobility. Through industry-led collaborative research and large-scale technology integration trials, CUTRIC is working to achieve this goal by focusing on technology development, integration and standardization of low-carbon propulsion systems and smart vehicle systems, data-driven analytics in mobility, and cybersecurity in transportation.

Media contact:

Grace Reilly

514-244-3244

grace.reilly@old.cutric-crituc.org