Thank you for the…

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Ontario Low-Carbon Hydrogen Strategy Discussion Paper.

As a resident of Ontario, I am pleased that the provincial government is looking seriously at hydrogen, and I support the long-term vision and a number of the directions set out in the paper. I commend the government for this.

I would also like to offer a concern--as well as a solution to that concern.

The concern is that often, in my experience, governments and the private sector tend to reach for dazzling-looking technological developments that are 10, 15, 20 years away from the technological and infrastructure breakthroughs needed to able to be well implemented. That's ok: we need long-term visions. However, what happens too often is that we allow ourselves to be taken in so much by the dazzling vision of 10 to 15 years from now that we avoid what can and must be done now. That is my caution with this Discussion Paper: please look at what hydrogen can do now, immediately, to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

There is already a proven, demonstrated, commercially available, globally positioned, Toronto-based company offering a hydrogen solution for diesel engines that reduces emissions by over 50%, while also reducing fuel consumption by 5% to 19%. The company is called Dynacert, and their on-demand hydrogen units are called Hydragen. The company has spent 16 years and $60 million in R and D to create this product. It is a proven solution NOW to greenhouse gas emissions. It has achieved United Nations Sustainable Cities certification and Ontario municipalities are starting to use it, such as the city of Woodstock. I strongly encourage the Ontario government to include this in its hydrogen strategy as a critical interim step bridging until the long-term solutions outlined in the Strategy Paper can come online, or alongside of those solutions. Hydragen dramatically improves emissions while also improving the bottom lines for end-users and creating significant employment. This is an Ontario success story and not including this as one of the central features of Ontario's hydrogen strategy would be a grave oversight and mistake.

I strongly encourage the Ontario government to support this technology with incentives for the private sector, whether in the form of regulation or financial incentives. The government's support would go a long ways towards validating the technology with private sector end-users. One arena the government could have an immediate impact in with its hydrogen strategy is to ensure that all school bus companies to install this technology--demonstration projects have clearly demonstrated over 50% emission reductions on school buses in Ontario. Ontario government support would make ROI for these companies achievable. Not only does this help the environment, it helps the health of children.

Please do not let "business as usual" happen while we wait a number of years for the exciting vision outlined in the Strategy Paper to materialize. That would would limit significantly the vision of what hydrogen technology can provide to the province of Ontario.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment!