Qualicum Beach is charging forward as an electric vehicle leader, installing five more charging stations through a provincial initiative.
“We have made a commitment to being leaders in this area, council has been innovative in their thinking about emissions reduction,” said mayor Teunis Westbroek in a news release.
They will receive 75 percent of the eligible cost to a maximum of $4,000 for each of five stations from the BC Community Charging Infrastructure (CCI) Fund, through the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Incentive.
The provincial fund, administered by the Fraser Basin Council, is making $2.74 million available for a network of up to 570 publicly available charging stations.
“This marks a major step in achieving our goals of becoming a truly sustainable community,” Westbroek said. “It’s our responsibility to support the use of low or zero emission vehicles and this funding will help us to achieve that.”
The Town of Qualicum Beach had the plans in place before last week’s announcement that the CCI Fund would research the possibility of two new stations, but had to wait for the provincial announcement.
The five new Qualicum Beach stations will be installed by the end of March, 2013 on the waterfront, civic centre, airport and two in the town hall underground parking area.