GORE BAY—A Gore Bay couple has, in partnership with the Town of Gore Bay, installed an electric vehicle (EV) station in town and are calling for more to be installed in Gore Bay and around Manitoulin Island. Meanwhile Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes and the NDP party are calling for EV charging infrastructure and reliability across Northern Ontario and Canada.
“No doubt there definitely needs to be more EV stations everywhere,” stated Brad Wright, who along with his wife Anya had a new EV station installed at a location on the Gore Bay town office property location. “There are two EV stations in Little Current (Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands) at the post office, and one in Providence Bay,” said Mr. Wright. “People who own electric cars will gladly pay up, and it adds another service to a community, especially when the Island is such a tourist destination.”
“I mean we have 200 spots for boats in the town marina that can charge up, and we have one EV station. We need more,” said Mr. Wright.
Mr. Wright said about a year ago, in the spring/summer of 2022, he and his wife committed toward providing funds toward the purchase of an EV station in town. The charger was ordered and arrived in the winter and was installed by the town in April.
“We have a charger at home and for years we have been letting other people with electric cars use it to charge their vehicles,” said Mr. Wright. “It will help bring people to town. There will definitely be more of a need for them being available in the future everywhere.”
Mr. Wright explained, “we drove to Parry Sound last weekend, and they have EV chargers everywhere.”
“Our older Tesla vehicle we have had for five years, and we purchased a new one in February,” said Mr. Wright.
Mr. Wright noted when someone plugs in their vehicle at an EV station while they wait for it to charge, they can go for lunch, run errands or go for a walk and while they are doing some of this they are likely spending more money in the community.
“This particular charger (in Gore Bay) will charge at a rate of 50-kilometre range per hour,” said Mr. Wright. He said some electric vehicles when fully charged can get 400 kilometres while some can get as many as 600 kilometres. “When we went to Parry Sound it cost us $2.50 per 100 kilometres we drove. So, to travel to Sudbury would cost us probably $5.”
“And having these EV stations brings people into town,” said Mr. Wright. He noted the biggest problem with EV stations, “occurs when gas vehicles park in the front of an EV station.”
“We are very grateful the town is supportive of the EV station and had it installed near the municipal building,” said Mr. Wright.
As Canadians start to take their summer vacations, Canada’s NDP is calling on Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ensure EV chargers are available and reliable across Northern Ontario and Canada, as promised in the federal government’s Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program. The call comes in response to reports of chargers across Northern Ontario, specifically Marathon, White River and Wawa, being out of service, leaving drivers stranded along the highway.
“It’s absurd to think that drivers would be stranded without access to a recharging station for a month,” said NDP MP Carol Hughes (Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing). “In one case, in White River, the issue was due to a damaged transformer, which is an unfortunate but reasonable issue; however, the fact that this EV charger has been out of service since April is unreasonable. As for the chargers at the Petro-Canada stations in Marathon and Wawa that were down, the company has not provided any reason as to why they weren’t in service.”
In 2018, the provincial government scrapped provincial rebates for EV charging stations, as well as removed many across the province. The federal government continues to provide subsidies to private companies to install EV charging stations, requiring a reliability guarantee to be eligible for the subsidy. To date, companies with broken stations have not been held accountable.
