qathet Regional District (qRD) board will consider establishing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in rural areas.
At the February 17 committee of the whole meeting, Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick brought forward a recommendation for establishing the charging stations, and that staff seek grant funding to install two on Texada Island.
McCormick, who chairs the committee of the whole, said she was approached by a constituent about adding the stations on Texada.
“It is a great idea and it’s long overdue,” said McCormick. “For residents who want to have that option, there’s very little in the way of public transportation on Texada, so people who want to have a greener footprint, this is a great option for them. The trouble is, unless you put in your own electric vehicle charging station, which one person has done, there’s nowhere to charge your vehicle.
“A number of people are going to the hybrid model but it’s great to attract visitors who arrive in electric vehicles, to encourage visitors who have electric vehicles, to come to the rural areas. The time is right to be doing this.”
Electoral Area C director Clay Brander said he has been driving an EV for the past four or five years and when he travels out of town, he’s always looking for charge points.
“It’s a valuable thing to have,” said Brander. “I did speak to a contact at the school board and noticed a lot of schools around Powell River have charge stations. Pending approval by the school board and getting the funding, there are plans to put a charging station in at the Texada school.
“First and foremost, it would be utilized by staff, but staff doesn’t always use it, so it will be open to the public as far as I know. There are some plans in the works but it doesn’t mean it should preclude the qRD from investigating options as well.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he had a question about how charging stations work.
“If an individual from the public uses one of these charging stations, do they have to pay for the electricity they use?” asked Gisborne.
City director CaroleAnn Leishman said when City of Powell River first put in the level-two charging stations, they were free. They were connected to a city BC Hydro account, she added.
“The municipality was paying for the charging,” said Leishman. “I believe the one year they were fully installed it was about $1,500 for the year, so it’s not a huge expense. Initially, we wanted to provide the charging infrastructure as an incentive for people to come here with electric vehicles or to purchase them.
“We felt, after a couple of years, that some people were sort of abusing it, leaving their cars on the charger for way longer than what they were charging, so we started implementing a fee. We were able to transition our charging units to a fee and the people have to swipe a credit card to pay for their charging.”
Brander said he has travelled from qRD down to Portland, Oregon, in his EV and the only time he did not pay for the charging was when a business had set up a charger on a promotional basis to bring people in.
“It was very common to pay for it [charging],” added Brander.
The committee carried a motion to refer the matter to the regional board for consideration.
