Electric vehicle infrastructure lags in Prairie provinces
CTV
The Prairies, along with Newfoundland and Labrador, trail the rest of the country in electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure.
The Prairies, along with Newfoundland and Labrador, trail the rest of the country in electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure.
Unless you’re travelling on a major highway or through a big city, Jerilyn Nixon, secretary of the Saskatchewan Electric Vehicle Association, said it can be a challenge to find chargers, especially in rural areas and the northern half of Saskatchewan.
"It's not about just getting people through the province with EVs. It’s also about wanting to bring people into tourist destinations," she said.
"We need charging stations in every small town, every museum, mall (and) even grocery stores because not everyone has access to home chargers."
P.E.I. has the most charging ports per capita at 16 per 10,000 people, while the Prairie provinces and Newfoundland and Labrador have the lowest at three.
The number of EV charging ports across the country has tripled over the past five years, putting Canada at just over 30,000 ports in nearly 12,000 stations, according to data from Natural Resources Canada.
But the country is still a long way from the projected 442,000 to 469,000 charging ports needed to meet EV needs by 2035.
