Nipawin plans EV charging stations

The mayor added the city had requests for chargers, often from visitors.

“We’ve had several instances where people from other provinces have wanted to visit people here. And there’s no local charging for electric vehicles. And so that’s how it first came to our attention,” she said. “And then we started to look at was there funding available for this? Because otherwise, we probably wouldn’t have done it right now,” Harper said.

A report to council said Nipawin has been approved for funding by Eco-West Canada, a non-profit based in Winnipeg. Eco-West is helping to set up EV charging stations in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, with funding coming from a program set up by Natural Resources Canada.

Total cost of the project is pegged at $70,000, with $30,000 of that coming through Eco-West. The town will pay the other $40,000.

“We were successful in obtaining funding and we decided to just put our foot down and get going,” she said.

At the same time, Harper said it is unclear how many EV’s are in the Nipawin area.

“It’s a conversation we had and nobody knows. There are a few electric vehicles,” she said. “We were more familiar with people stopping at our visitor center and asking. The closest charging station right now is in Prince Albert.”

The report to council says the stations would be user pay. Under the agreement, the charging stations have to be finished by the end of the year.

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doug.lett@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @DougLettSK

by Doug Lett

Nipawin plans EV charging stations

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