The Green Budget Coalition recommends that the Government of Canada continues to build on the public and private investments made to date in electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, by funding NRCan’s Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP) to ensure the department has the necessary resources to build out a consistent and predictable network of charging infrastructure across the country.
ZEVIP has proven to work well and is achieving its intended results. Canada’s Environment and Sustainable Development Commissioner’s recent audit report highlights ZEVIP’s success in increasing the availability of public charging infrastructure across Canada. ZEVIP’s model of leveraging substantial private sector investment to complement NRCan’s funding has been particularly effective, as highlighted in the Commissioner’s report.
The ZEVIP priority of building charging infrastructure in multi-unit residential buildings, as well as non-urban areas, including rural, remote and indigenous communities, must be maintained. The Government of Canada must do more to ensure that ZEVIP is funded and can continue to provide opportunities for partners to build more EV charging stations across the country. A comprehensive and accessible public charging network is vital if Canada is going to be successful in transitioning to a zero emission on-road vehicle fleet across our country. To date, there has been an impressive deployment of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) in Canada, with these two categories representing a record high of over 13% of new vehicle registrations in 2023.
The Government of Canada’s new regulations for the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard in December 2023 are a historic achievement which will continue the EV revolution by banning the sale of gasoline and diesel powered passenger vehicles. However, the success of the ZEV mandate regulation will be contingent on an adequate supply of reliable, convenient EV charging stations across Canada. A recent national report which surveyed the charging experience of Canadian EV owners indicates there is still much work to do. The 2023 survey concludes that despite successes to date in building new charging stations across the country, EV owners’ dissatisfaction with the availability of public chargers ranges from 60% in Quebec to as high as 80% in other parts of Canada.
The Green Budget Coalition is therefore recommending that Budget 2025 continues to fund NRCan’s Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program to enable the building of a comprehensive and reliable EV public charging network across the country.
Recommended Investment:
$325 million over three years [NRCan]