The funds from the ChargeON program will be distributed to EV charging station projects located in small- and medium-sized communities

Ontario has announced the successful applicants for the $63-million funding stream designed to put chargers in communities with populations under 170,000 people or any Indigenous community.

The funding, originally announced in March 2022, comes from the Community Sites Stream in the ChargeON program. ChargeON is a $91 million EV charging investment fund from the government.

“Improving EV charging infrastructure is essential to ensuring drivers are confident in electric vehicles,” said Prabmeet Sarkaria, Ontario’s minister of transportation, in a press release.

“By focusing on smaller and medium-sized communities, we’re filling gaps in underserved areas to build a more connected charging network for everyone in Ontario.”

The remaining $28 million in the ChargeON fund will go to projects in the Government Sites Stream. Applications for that stream closed in September.

Delays in funding

According to the government there are more than 201,000 EVs on the road in Ontario. The successful applicants to the ChargeON Community Sites Stream represent 1,300 new charging stations across 270 locations in the province.

However, it’s been over a year since a call for applications in October 2023.

With the passage of time there is no guarantee successful applicants will accept the funding and proceed with their projects as originally proposed.

Originally, successful applicants were to be notified by the government this past spring.

Earlier this month, after receiving feedback from readers about problematic delays in the program, Electric Autonomy reached out asked both the ministry of energy and the ministry of transportation about the delay in announcing successful applicants and received no explanation.

The following week the government announced the projects it would fund. It remains to see how many projects will elect to move forward. Other questions include what will happen to the funds of projects that abandon their plans.

The full list of charging station locations from ChargeON’s Community Sites Stream is available here.