Organizations that build EV chargers say municipal permits slow infrastructure rollout, and suggest a unified process could help.
The Canadian Charging Infrastructure Council (CCIC) audited nine organizations, including seven charge point operators or charging networks and two engineering, procurement and construction contractors.
The survey examines barriers to installing public chargers and identifies ways to speed up installation—mainly municipal requirements, approval timelines, project consequences and opportunities to improve municipal and utility processes.
Image credit: CCIC
Starting with factors that caused delays, 78 percent of respondents noted that minimum parking requirements delayed them the most, with lack of EV codes or municipal guidance, green space requirements, and site plan changes tied for second with 67 percent.
Interestingly, factors such as environmental assessment, accessibility and indigenous consultation requirements were the lowest, at 11 percent.
Image credit: CCIC
Interestingly, 87 percent of respondents reported that there was moderate to extreme variation in the approval processes for new EV charging sites across different municipalities in the same province. The majority said there are moderate variations, while only 12 percent said it is almost a different process each time.
Back to approval speed, most respondents said they either didn’t have enough experience to say which province has the fastest approval process or voted for B.C.
Nova Scotia and Ontario were mentioned by 12 percent of respondents, while no other province was listed. As for the slowest, 38 percent of respondents said both Quebec and Ontario, while 25 percent said they did not have enough experience to say.
Image credit: CCIC
However, in terms of speed, a surprising finding is that most respondents said the median time was three to six months, while the fewest said it took 12 to 18 months. In addition, 89 percent of respondents said that a reasonable benchmark for obtaining a permit to renovate a parking lot was less than three months.
Shifting to abandoned sites, respondents said 54 sites were abandoned after securing a site host agreement, with 10 abandoned due to municipal approvals/delays and 17 due to utility interconnection delays or costs.
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