When people in B.C.’s Kootenay region saw electric vehicles and chargers multiplying in urban communities on the coast, they realized they were missing out on potential visitors and customers.
“We needed to build infrastructure to bring those people this way,” recalled Danielle Wiess, director of transportation initiatives for the Community Energy Association, a B.C.-based group focused on local energy, decarbonization and climate adaptation.
So the group worked with local municipalities, as well as other levels of government and utilities, to create the Accelerate Kootenays charging network of dozens of EV chargers across 1,870 kilometres of rural southeastern B.C. in places like Revelstoke, Nelson, Cranbrook and Invermere.
They’re among rural communities across the country that are finding ways to bring EV charging infrastructure to their regions so they don’t get left behind in the EV transition, when private and public investment normally goes to dense urban centres. Some are already enjoying the opportunities and benefits, from attracting tourists to enabling EV adoption in their own communities.
By design, only 15 of the chargers in the Accelerate Kootenays network are Level 3 (fast) chargers that can charge an EV to nearly its full range in 30 minutes.
The vast majority — 40 — are Level 2, able to add up to 50 km range per hour of charging, requiring drivers to stay awhile for a bigger charge. They’re purposely located off the highway, in communities themselves.
“And we find that to be the most exciting thing,” Wiess said, “because people are discovering places they’ve never been before.” She said some have even become repeat visitors.
Meanwhile, EV ownership in the Kootenays has been growing quickly, at a pace on par with B.C.’s Lower Mainland, she added: “The underlying opportunity is that everyone — not just those who live in urban centres — can adopt electric vehicles if they want to.”
The network was completed in 2019. And it prompted communities east and north of the Kootenays to wonder if they were missing out too.
That led to the launch of the Peaks to Prairies EV charging network in southern Alberta and Charge North across 2,780 kilometres of northern B.C.
Soon the Community Energy Association heard from communities in northern Alberta, central Vancouver Island and Southwestern Ontario who wanted their own networks too.
Why EV chargers have big impacts on rural communities
Adding even one EV charger can have a huge impact on a rural community — since in many, it’s their first and only public charger.
Jessica Tait is the sustainable transportation manager at Indigenous Clean Energy, which runs Charge Up, a program to install EV charging infrastructure in Indigenous communities and businesses with government support. The majority are in rural areas.
She said 95 per cent of applicants to the program didn’t have any access to a charger in their communities. But they see the potential benefits.
Many gas stations across the country have Indigenous owners and operators, Tait said.
“And this is often a point where people will kind of go into a community or go off the highway,” Tait said. That offers opportunities for tourism, or for businesses such as shops or restaurants, but even others in the community.
Roy Delormier owns and operates Express Gas on Cornwall Island, on the Ontario side of the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, which spans the Canada-U.S. border. He heard about Charge Up from the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, and got funding to cover half the cost of two fast chargers. They were installed in the fall of 2023. “I just kind of wanted to be part of, you know, the clean energy [and] EV market,” he said.
Since then, the chargers have been used by people travelling between the U.S. and Canada, as well as a growing number of locals — including the local police department. The police station itself only has slower Level 2 chargers for the new electric cruisers.
“Nobody else has the infrastructure,” Delormier said. “We definitely have been seeing an uptick in the amount of use they [the fast chargers] get.”
Tait said many communities see EV infrastructure as enabling them to reach their own emissions goals.
In fact, Wiess says, there’s huge potential to save on emissions — and fuel costs — in rural areas, where people need to drive longer distances to work, shop, or go to medical appointments or sports matches, and transportation typically accounts for two-thirds of local greenhouse gas emissions.
Tait said EV infrastructure can also help communities move toward energy sovereignty and not be left behind in the energy transition. “Consumers won’t necessarily have the option to choose gas vehicles in the near future,” she said.
The federal government is laying out its final plan to phase out new, gas-powered passenger vehicles by 2035, with gradually increasing targets for manufacturers to meet.
In many rural regions, building a network is necessary to make owning an EV even feasible.
Kent Heinrich has been working with the Free Ride EV Education program to help facilitate EV adoption in First Nation Communities in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario. While northern Manitoba residents he talked to were excited about saving on things like fuel, he realized it wasn’t really practical for them to buy an EV due to the lack of chargers connecting two major Manitoba communities with services — Thompson in the north and Winnipeg in the south.
So he has been collaborating with Indigenous communities between them to build a charging network called Northern Gateway with the help of the Charge Up program and provincial funding. “It’s going to open up the road to Thompson,” he said. “Just having that route started opens the door for so many opportunities.”
Electric vehicle owners and advocates in Thompson, Man., say the province is ignoring the north with a lack of charging stations and infrastructure along highways.
Rural challenges and opportunities for EVs
The challenge for many rural communities, Wiess said, is that private investment in things like EV charging tends to pass by them, as it’s hard to make a strong business case for it with such a low number and density of potential users.
They’re also sometimes left out by government funding programs. A $680-million federal EV infrastructure charging program was criticized by Canada’s commissioner of the environment in 2023 for providing 87 per cent of nearly 34,000 charging ports installed through the program to urban areas.
Much of rural Canada is farther north than its major cities, with colder winters and a hillier topography. Both factors can reduce the range of electric vehicles, requiring more chargers spaced closer together.
Groups like the Community Energy Association and Indigenous Clean Energy are trying to overcome these challenges.
Rob van Adrichem, director of external relations for the Community Energy Association, said northern communities “feel left behind on a lot of things … we want to be part of what’s going on.”
In many cases, local communities are contributing their own funding to get networks started.
“That regional collaboration … creates the volume and the interest that is required to attract those private investments,” Wiess said.
Van Adrichem says the benefits of the Charge North network, which started installing charging stations in 2022, are already visible in his community of Prince George, B.C. Even a year ago, it was unusual to see EVs around town. Now, there’s many different brands, he said, from Ford F-150 Lightnings to Hyundai Ioniq 5s to Teslas — “even a Cybertruck or two.”
Experts say Canada needs hundreds of thousands more charging stations to support electric vehicle targets, but it’s unclear who’s in charge of building them.
Van Adrichem himself bought an EV last summer. He thinks seeing chargers in prominent places like the local library makes people in the community aware of EVs and see that EV adoption is possible for them. He himself only has Level 1 slow charging at home, which adds just six kilometres of range per hour. So he uses the faster Level 2 charging stations at the library and the local rec centre if he needs a top up.
Since building Charge North, the Community Energy Association has been helping communities in northern Alberta and southwestern Ontario start their own regional collaborations and design their EV networks. Wiess says the Ontario network recently got funding to start installing stations this year. The northern Alberta group is in the final stages of pursuing funding, and the group invites other collaborations.
“We would like to do more of this,” she added. “We’d be happy to help fill other gaps across the Prairies and other parts of Canada.”
