Off The Page has finished our first season and is on a short summer break with season two set for September. Please enjoy this selection of an encore presentation from our sister podcast, Today in B.C.
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In this edition of ‘Today in BC’, host Peter McCully chats with Black Press columnist Bruce Cameron about going green, the popularity of electric vehicles and the latest on the Ballard fuel cell.
“I think just the price of gasoline going up will drive a lot of people to really take a closer look at shifting to an electric vehicle, and I think people are realizing that with the targets that are set, it’s a matter of time,” he said. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when people shift over.”
Todd Maliteare of Canadian Electric Vehicles has been building smaller electric trucks, (MightETruck) on Vancouver Island since 1995 for various industries and is currently working on a medium-duty electric truck.
“The pandemic came along and shut down municipal budgets for a while,” he said. “So our sales were reduced in that area and we focused back to our roots which is gas to electric vehicle conversion. We’re seeing a lot of a renewed interest lately for obvious reasons, in those types of conversions.”
Dr. David Suzuki and his wife Tara Cullis recently drove from Vancouver to Toronto in an electric car. Their ‘low-carbon adventure’ was also an opportunity to stop and view several wind and solar power projects.
“Change is happening, but it’s way too late. We need this being done on a massive scale,” said Suzuki. Asked about the cost of electricity for the road trip, he noted: “I think the peak cost was less than $20 and we were charging three times a day. On average, I would say it’s around eight to $10 per charge.
“Most of the charges that we used were at PetroCan stations,” said Suzuki. “I found it really humorous to watch these cars pulling up, their bills were over $100, and we were getting $8 and away we would go.”
To listen to the full episode, download Off The Page on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and everywhere podcasts are heard, or visit omny.fm/shows/off-the-page. New episodes of Off The Page drop every Wednesday.
To submit podcast topics or guest ideas, email offthepage@comoxvalleyrecord.com.