During a press conference at the beginning of November 2010, the Réseau des ingénieurs du Québec published a brief addressing Québec’s strategy for sustainable mobility.

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Background

In 2009, the RéseauIQ published a study entitled the Québec Energy Development Study, within a context of sustainable development, which includes several energy efficiency recommendations, transportation optimization and the use of biofuels. This brief is in keeping with the ongoing vision of the RéseauIQ and strives to foster the debate surrounding electric vehicles and sustainable mobility.

The content of this brief is based on the state of technology in Québec and Canada, as well as a review of international current events, in order to develop a series of recommendations for an ambitious government strategy on sustainable mobility. In addition, it underlines how important it is to support Québec engineering that is currently playing an active key role in this young industry.

These proposals have been designed in an effort to help our society lower its consumption of energy and dependence on oil. Current figures indicate an imminent decrease in oil production between now and 2015, which will in turn raise the price per barrel. More than 70% of oil consumption in Québec stems from transportation, which is also the province’s greatest GHG producing sector. In addition, our dependence on oil weighs heavily on our trade balance, representing close to $15 billion each year.

The RéseauIQ’s proposals

We are convinced that the Québec government must take more action on this matter, and as such RéseauIQ has grouped its proposals under two headings:

-    Heading 1: reduce our carbon footprint and the transportation industry’s reliance on oil
-    Heading 2: support Québec’s electric vehicle industry

Our work therefore strives to raise awareness and support engineers and decision-makers:

-    By decreasing Québec’s oil consumption in its transportation industry, by specifically increasing the use of electric vehicles;
-    By stimulating Québec’s economy, its transportation industries and second generation biofuels.

The purpose of these recommendations is to present our vision of actions to be taken, while realizing that the development of any policy will obviously require open dialogue among various industries, municipalities, institutions and social groups.

We believe that Québec has the tools necessary to meet these challenges and, with the support of its engineers, can help Steer Québec Towards Sustainable Mobility!