The BC Cycling Coalition has been busy in the province of British Columbia recently and have recently announced several bicycling improvements including:

• Seven Vancouver Island communities will get nearly $2.7 million in Bike BC funding for cycling facilities
• Updates to Highway 97 in West Kelowna include wider shoulders and improved lighting from Glenrosa Road to Hebert Road
• Upgrades to the Sea to Sky include the Porteau Bluffs cycling warning system and may include improved shoulders near Whistler

Another aspect the Coalition is working on is the taxation laws on electric bikes as well as clean energy vehicle rebates. Amazingly, if you were to buy a hybrid car in BC, you’d be eligible for rebates of up to $5,000 but you’d receive nothing for purchasing one of the cleanest energy vehicles known to humankind: that’s right, there are no tax rebates for electric bikes. Likewise, purchasers of electric bikes are charged Provincial Standard Tax in BC (thus adding 7% to the overall sticker price) but PST doesn’t apply to normal bicycles.
That means the purchaser of an electric bicycle in the province of British Columbia is saddled with extra costs and cannot apply for clean energy rebates. Thankfully there are proponents for change and organizations that are working to reverse these unfair practices in British Columbia.
In his column that appeared in the Vancouver Sun newspaper 8recently, Don Cayo writes, “The provincial government kindly kicked in $1,500 toward the purchase of my last fuel-efficient vehicle (but) my newest bicycle? When it is delivered next week, the price will include 12 percent tax – five percent federal plus seven percent provincial. Why won’t this bike get the reinstated exemption? Because I’m adding an electric assist motor, and this, under the arcane PST rules, makes the whole shebang taxable. Which makes no sense.” (To read all of Don’s column, click here.)
Mike Clyde, the owner of Pedego Canada pictured below, shares Don’s frustration. “There’s an apparent double standard at work here,” he says. “Electric bikes are one of the most super-efficient green vehicles out there and they’re replacing car journeys. If bicycles are exempt from PST because the rationale is they’re green, then electric bicycles should also be exempt.”