By Thomas Goyer
Muskoka District Council has approved a bid to install new EV chargers in Muskoka.
At the Monday afternoon meeting, District Council voted unanimously to approve the application made by Lakeland Solutions to install new EV chargers throughout Muskoka. The new EV chargers will come at no cost to the District.
In a presentation before the Finance and Corporate Services Committee in December, there were bids from Alectra Energy Solutions and Lakeland Solutions, a division of Bracebridge Generation (BGL). These bids were to work with the District to install new EV chargers.
A key component to the bids was to be able to use the ChargeON grants, a provincial government initiative to help cover installation costs for new EV projects. The ChargeON grants would only be available to both companies if their application was approved by the District before the end of January.
After deliberations by district staff, it was recommended that the district partner with Lakeland. The deal will be a lease agreement where the district permits Lakeland to install and operate chargers on district property for public use. Lakeland will pay for all capital and operating costs involved in the installation and maintenance of the chargers while keeping all resulting revenues.
Lakeland Power is a municipally owned local entity with experience installing EV chargers in Muskoka. The project is eligible for up to 75 per cent of costs to be covered under ChargeON grants. Presently, District staff stated that they had outlined six potential locations for the chargers in Muskoka but had yet to finalize plans.
The chargers will allow for more Muskoka residents to transition to electric vehicles. Increased use of electric vehicles will be particularly beneficial for reducing GHG emissions. According to a 2018 report from the District, up to 74 per cent of all community emissions in Muskoka are from the transportation sector.
Related
District hears proposal for dozens of new EV stations
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Craig Nakamoto says
I think this is great, and I am glad that Lakeland got the contract. More level 3 chargers are what we need in Ontario. However, there is a misconception here related to the comment “The chargers will allow for more Muskoka residents to transition to electric vehicles”. Typical people with electric vehicles don’t need level 3 high speed chargers near where they live. You need these chargers when you are traveling – so the fact that we didn’t have any in Huntsville when I bought my ev made no difference. The level 2 charger in my garage (which is essentially the same as an rv plug) charges my car overnight (during the cheap electricity billing time) – so I always charge at home unless I am traveling outside of my 300-400km range – and then I need level 3 chargers where I am traveling – not at home. The exception I suppose would be for commercial use and also for emergency use if you forgot to charge overnight and wanted to go on a longer trip quickly.