By Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
The Trudeau government spent millions subsidizing the installation of 34 electric vehicle charging stations across Canada’s three territories, which will service the seven electric vehicles in the region.
“There are currently 34 public electric vehicle chargers in the territories to service the seven electric vehicles representing a ratio of less than one electric vehicle to charger,” wrote the Department of Natural Resources to the Senate national finance committee.
The federal government says the charging infrastructure will make it easier for people to transition to electric cars.
“This indicates the number of public chargers available have capacity to support electric vehicle adaptation for local travel,” the department wrote. “Furthermore chargers are found in the same areas as the battery electric vehicles except for Nunavut, where all the cars are plug-in hybrid cars.”
The Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program funded the initiative to deploy electric vehicle chargers and hydrogen refuelling stations across Canada.
The Department of Environment tallied up a bill of $680 million spent in government subsidies to introduce charging stations nationally in its 2023 Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement.
The cost of Canada’s electric vehicle program overall has now totaled at least $99 billion, excluding direct subsidies to manufacturers, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
The department did not specify where the charging stations are located within the three territories, which account for 3.9 million square kilometres of land. What is known however, is that despite the installation of new chargers in the arctic, one of the major pitfalls of EVs is having poor performances in colder climates.