'Market demand' likely to blame for electric car charger shortage in north, says ministry

Electric car owners in northern Ontario are just going to have to get used to seeing fewer charging stations than their southern neighbours, at least until business owners step up to the plate, said Ontario's Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca.

Del Duca was responding to a CBC story about an electric car owner in Sturgeon Falls, Ont., who feels the provincial government hasn't lived up to its promise to have electric car charges stationed throughout the province.​

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Del Duca said the government was leaving it up to the free market to decide.

"We didn't sit back and say it should be a certain percentage in the north, a certain percentage in the south or the east or the southwest. We put it out into the market," he said.

"I would hazard a guess that a lot of the response that came back was also based on at least some response to the market demand that exists out there."

In 2016, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) said it would install 500 public stations to charge electric vehicles. That work was expected to be completed by March of this year.

Currently, the Ministry of Transportation lists 14 current and future electric vehicle chargers (EVCO) sites for northern Ontario.

Just one has been installed — at a Tim Horton's in New Liskeard. It is a Level 3 station, which can charge a car in an hour.

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