‘Build it and they will come’ is taking on a new meaning in Northern Canada’s tourism industry. If you want to attract tourists from urban Ontario, where increasing numbers of people drive electric vehicles (EVs), you are going to need to offer charging stations to make their visits viable.
But this is costly and presents a bit of a chicken and egg dilemma - is it really worthwhile to offer charging stations before you know that tourists driving EVs are coming? But of course if you wait until you see EVs approaching your remote resort it’s going to be too late.
Thankfully, there is an organization called Charge Up operating in Northern Canada that is funded by “the non-profit Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE), which promotes Indigenous inclusion in the energy transition. The $1.6 million used for ICE comes directly from Natural Resources Canada through the Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program, a federal EV charger and hydrogen refuelling station subsidy.”
This has allowed the owners of White Pine Lodge Algonquin, located near Algonquin Provincial Park to think ahead and so “when they open the cabins for rental this fall, along with hiking trails and an art gallery focused on Indigenous artists and artworks, they will have two EV charging stations ready to go.”