Construction is often held up at the municipal level with outdated requirements and different rules across Canada, says CCIC’s Scott Sharabura

For such a critical piece of transportation infrastructure, the installation of an EV fast charging station is a fairly simple construction project: dig a hole, lay some conduit, fill the hole, install electrical equipment and plug it in. 

When done right, the crews can be in and out in four to six weeks.

Why, then, does it often take charging networks more than 24 months to build one new station? 

All over Canada, hundreds of EV charging projects are sitting in various stages of review or approval delay. Streamlining these projects would significantly address the number one barrier to EV adoption in Canada, which is access to charging infrastructure.  

Utilities often bear the brunt of the blame for slow deployments, but there’s another hidden roadblock that can delay projects by months: municipal red tape.

Fighting City Hall

In most municipalities, political leadership is highly supportive of EV adoption and is keen to see more public charging deployed in their communities.  

But problems still crop up on the front lines. 

With the permitting of charging projects still relatively new, individual city planners can struggle with delivering a clear “yes” or “no” answer early in the process. 

Compare this to how cities deal with gas stations. 

Every municipality has a playbook on how to permit a new gas station, because gas stations have been around for a century.  Only a few municipalities have done the same for EV charging stations.

A leadership example

Take Surrey, B.C., for example; with more than 500,000 residents and a high EV adoption rate, there is a strong need for public charging. 

Up until 2023, charging networks were struggling to get new fast-charging sites through the city’s permitting process. 

More recently, and thanks to a collaborative process between the city and charging networks, the city was able to publish clear guidelines about which projects could be fast-tracked. 

The result: Surrey has seen more than a dozen new stations open in the last 18 months from BC Hydro, Tesla, On the Run and others, bringing much-needed infrastructure to the city.  

Uneven Progress Across Canada

Unfortunately, examples like Surrey remain the exception. 

Canada has a patchwork of local policies in place, most of which have not been updated for charging infrastructure. This leaves large charging networks to deal with challenging requirements in at least 100 to 150 different municipal jurisdictions across the country.

What are the most common problems that arise in municipal permitting?

• Building permits. Many jurisdictions simply apply the same requirements as gas stations. This includes the need for a full building permit, which can take six to 12 months. But EV chargers typically don’t involve buildings. Municipalities can issue clear guidance to their city planners: unless a canopy or other structure is included, EV charging projects do not require a building permit. 
• Parking minimums. Most cities require a minimum number of parking stalls for a retail establishment. However, most municipalities do not count EV charging stalls toward this requirement, which leaves landlords reluctant to agree to add EV charging to their properties. In reality, a parking space with an EV charger is still a parking space; EV drivers will typically visit the nearby establishments while their car is charging. Municipalities can streamline projects by issuing clear guidance that parking spaces with a charger still count toward parking minimums.
• Setback requirements. The most convenient place to install EV chargers is typically at the perimeter of the property – this makes the best use of space and reduces trenching and conduit costs. However, the perimeter is also where projects are most likely to run into minimum setback requirements. Municipalities should update these requirements for EV charging equipment and minimize the setback distances as much as possible.
• Green space requirements. Many cities have a requirement that a certain percentage of a retail site needs to be devoted to green space. There’s a certain irony at play – these requirements may stop the deployment of an EV charging station, which would deliver environmental benefits that are greater than the patch of grass it replaces. City planners should be given leeway to grant exceptions or to count EV charging facilities toward the green space requirements.

Spreading the Word

The good news is, these are solvable problems. 

A few interventions can accelerate the permitting process, opening the door for more chargers in communities that need them.  

And best practices are starting to be shared across municipalities. 

Last year, Dunsky Energy + Climate (with the support of BC Hydro) published a toolkit to let local governments streamline the permitting processes, capturing lessons from deployments in municipalities across B.C. This toolkit provides specific guidance on changes to the approval process can help accelerate EV charging projects. 

Public EV charging infrastructure is a critical national infrastructure project – but it gets deployed one site at a time. Charging networks are eager to build and with a few changes, local municipalities can help pave the way.