From northern British Columbia to southwestern Ontario, rural and Indigenous communities are driving a wave of new electric vehicle charging networks—and boosting local economic development along the way.

In B.C., the Community Energy Association (CEA) involved more than 30 regional, municipal, and Indigenous governments, and several other public and private sector organizations to help complete a 2,800-kilometre public charging corridor in the province. Charge North, which added 60 charging ports to the network in central and northern B.C. between 2022-24, enabled EV travel between communities that were once nearly impossible to reach without a combustion engine vehicle, The Energy Mix reported in February. 

Enabling local EV adoption was part of the goal, but the “main driver, 100%, has been economic development and tourism,” Danielle Wiess, CEA’s director of transportation initiatives, told The Mix.

A similar motivation is driving Indigenous community interest in EV charging infrastructure, Jessica Tait, sustainable transportation manager at Ottawa-based Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE), told CBC News. ICE’s federally supported Charge Up program installs EV charging infrastructure in Indigenous communities and businesses.

Roy Delormier, an Akwesasne Mohawk who owns a gas station on Cornwall Island, Ontario, is one of the recipients. Funding from Charge Up covered 50% of the cost for two fast chargers (Level 3) at his business, and they have boosted his trade, Delormier said. They serve residents, cross-border travellers—Cornwall Island is right near the Canada-United States border—and even local police officers who have slower Level 2 chargers at their station.

“Nobody else has the infrastructure,” Delormier told CBC News. “We definitely have been seeing an uptick in the amount of use they [the fast chargers] get.”

Charge Up is also helping Indigenous communities in northern Manitoba to realize a charging network called the Northern Gateway, which would stretch over 800 kilometres from Thompson to Winnipeg.

Back in B.C., the networks continue to expand. Completed in 2019, the Accelerate Kootenays network saw 55 Level 2 chargers open up 1,870 kilometres of rural southeastern B.C. to EV drivers. Accelerate Kootenays 2.0 aims to build on that success by adding 98 chargers to the network.

The CEA is also supporting the Mid-Island EV Network. A collaboration between regional districts, cities, towns, and one village, the network will see a Level 2 charging network built across Central Vancouver Island and will connect the more populous east coast—and extremely populous lower Mainland—with the wilderness tourism meccas of Tofino and Ucluelet.

Meanwhile, in southwestern Ontario, a rural EV network partnership between six counties, two cities, and the Nuclear Innovation Institute has secured funding for more chargers, CEA says.

Yet another CEA-facilitated EV network is in the works in northwestern Alberta, with Edmonton and Grande Prairie, together with the towns of Drayton Valley, Edson, Hinton, Rocky Mountain House, and Whitecourt, in the final stages of applying for funding.

The CEA stands ready to welcome further collaborations, writes CBC News.

This story is part of The 89 Percent Project, an initiative of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.