Fresh marching orders for B.C.’s new minority government: get moving. The province’s enterprise engine needs forward momentum beyond the divisive events of the recent provincial election campaign and the subsequent stalled transfer of power.
It’s more than a political imperative. Movement is an area of business ripe for exploitation by the province in its evolution from natural resource exporter to technology developer.
Seeds of transportation technology innovation have been sown in B.C., but they need government leadership to help them develop deep roots.
Electra Meccanica’s Solo is one such seed. Commercial production of the Vancouver-based three-wheeled electric commuter vehicle is now in gear. But that production is still a meagre two to 10 per month.
Solo needs support to help it develop beyond a local transportation curiosity.
Viable commercial mass production requires far more than innovative ideas. As Tesla’s example shows, infrastructure, investment and manufacturing hurdles are huge.
That’s where government can help.
The BC NDP’s predecessor Liberal government took an initial step toward incorporating natural gas technology in the province’s ferry fleet. Three vessels are now powered by natural gas rather than diesel.
But the ferries were refitted in shipyards in Poland.
That work and the innovation it will foster in local natural gas transportation development needs to be brought home to B.C.
Seeking to cut greenhouse gas emissions from such major polluters as ship, truck, rail and air freight carriers, the world is shifting gears into another transportation technology revolution. B.C. can be a leader in that revolution and reap its economic and business benefits.
But the province needs to make a commitment to it now by harnessing B.C.’s resource extraction and energy development cash flow to help fund investment in the new transportation innovation opportunities that await the agile and the enterprising.
Political leadership needs to provide the environment for innovation to succeed and then get out of the way so it can flourish.
