A new EV fast-charging station is ready for customer use in Ashcroft.
It is the first-ever for the community and the result of the council's persistence, said chief administrative officer Daniela Dyck.
"It's been a council priority for some quite time," she said. "When we built the water treatment plant, which came online at the end of 2018 early 2019, it was prepped to have an EV charging station installed beside it in the parking lot but when it was proposed to BC Hydro they decided that location was not ideal."
BC Hydro would have preferred to see the charging station on Railway Avenue, which is where the new one is located.
Initially the village went through the Charge North Program and received two level two chargers that were installed at Heritage Park.
"We had applied through the federal government for funding to get a level three charging station and we were declined two times. It's an onerous grant application and it is the same grant that BC Hydro applies for," Dyck explained.
When she reached out to the federal grant program again she was encouraged to reach out to BC Hydro.
"We did that, but we were off of Highway 1 and off the beaten path," she recalled as to why their application was not successful.
While they waited a couple of more years, Mayor Barbara Roden did not stop advocating and encouraging BC Hydro to reconsider the community as a location for a level three charging station.
Finally at the end of 2023, BC Hydro agreed to do a site visit.
The village proposed a few different locations and BC Hydro was keen on Railway Avenue and selected it.
Installing the charging station was at no cost to the local taxpayers, but Ashcroft will be paying to pave some of the area to make it easier to plow in the winter.
Several local residents drive electric vehicles and when the level two chargers were installed they were being heavily used by them, as well as by people travelling through, Dyck said.
"We have had lots of social media conversations with people wanting to know if the level three charging station is ready to use yet," Dyck said. "It just went online Friday, Nov. 15. There's been a lot of anticipation about it."
Presently the village's fleet does not have any electric vehicles.
Dyck said as the village moves forward with fleet replacement they will be looking at electric vehicles.
