Ford not flipping on EV chargers in new homes
Despite supporting battery production here, premier stands by removal of mandatory order
Queen’s Park will not reverse its controversial decision to pull the plug on mandatory electric vehicle chargers for new homes despite spending billions to subsidize EV production.
As Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives update the building code, they are expressing no regrets about zapping compulsory garage plugs from all new houses and condos in 2019.
Former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne had mandated the chargers in the building code three years earlier as part of a push to get motorists to switch to EVs from gasolinepowered cars and trucks.
But, after lobbying from developers who said the plugs added $500 to the cost of a new house, Ford stripped them from the code. He also ended rebates of up to $14,000 for buyers of EVs and scrapped chargers from GO Transit stations and other public locations.
Since then, the premier has done a major U-turn on EVs and, in partnership with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, promised billions in cash for Stellantis, Volkswagen, Ford and other manufacturers to build the batteries in Ontario.
“It’s pretty incredible when large companies come in and invest into the communities,” Ford enthused Thursday in Kitchener.
Over the past three years, the province has attracted more than $28 billion in EV-related investments from around the world and boasts it is becoming a global leader in the battery manufacturing supply chain.
However, EV sales are sagging, in part due to inadequate charging infrastructure — there are about 2,900 charging stations with 8,000 charging ports in Ontario.
Still, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra, who tabled legislation modernizing the building code on Wednesday, warned that keeping new home costs low is more important than mandating EV chargers.
“Look, I think homeowners can make that decision on their own. If you’re wanting to buy a EV, we encourage you to do it — that’s why we’re making massive investments in that,” Calandra told reporters at Queen’s Park.
“But if that’s something that you want to do, then the homeowner themselves can undertake that. We want to keep costs of building new homes down,” he said.
The price of installing an EV charger in an existing home can be between $1,000 and $3,000 — much more than putting one in during construction.
Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the Tories “are ideologically opposed to building the infrastructure we need for electric vehicles” and that has economic consequences.
“Is Ford Motor Company delaying the building of their plant and retooling their plant in Oakville because they know we don’t have the infrastructure in Ontario to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles?” said Schreiner.
“One of the simplest and easiest ways we can do that is to amend the building code to reinstate the need to have chargers. But they pulled the chargers out of GO station parking lots and they amended the Ontario building code to take chargers out as well,” he said.
New Democrat MPP Jessica Bell (University-Rosedale) said her party wants “to see building code changes that make it easy for people to plug their car into an electric vehicle charging station and get the power that they need.”
“The Conservatives have a very piecemeal approach to transitioning our vehicle and car fleet to an electric vehicle fleet. They have learned over time that this is what Ontarians want so they’ve had to backtrack,” said Bell.
“We need to have investments in manufacturing of electric vehicles and we need to have a comprehensive plan to make it easy for people to buy a vehicle and then charge their vehicle in their home — be it a condo or a single-family home or a duplex. We’re not seeing that yet,” she said.
Liberal MPP Adil Shamji (Don Valley East) charged that “since this government took power, they’ve done nothing but rip up EV infrastructure” across Ontario.
“For all of their grandstanding around trying to build more electric vehicles, they’ve actually made it more difficult to own one and operate one than any previous government,” said Shamji.