South Gabriola to get EV charger at Community Hall

Rachelle Stein-Wotten

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder

The Regional District of Nanaimo’s long in-the-works electric vehicle (EV) charging station for Gabriola Island is now headed for a new location.

One of 10 stations already or to be installed around the RDN as part of the provincially funded Mid-Vancouver Island EV Charging Network, Descanso Bay Regional Park had been designated as the location for the Gabriola charger, but installation ran into some snags.

According to a June 25 staff report presented to the RDN board of directors, during further site assessment, “numerous barriers” to installation were identified such as “conflicts with maintenance access routes and limited clearance for drivers entering and exiting their vehicles while using the station.”

Instead, a licence of agreement with the Gabriola Island Community Hall Association has been authorized by the RDN board.

Electoral Area B director and board chair, Vanessa Craig, said Descanso Bay park seemed “like it would be quite good because it’s also a campground.” But pivoting to the Community Hall on South Road presented “the opportunity to do some cost-sharing.”

Placement at the Community Hall will also mean the south end of the island will have its first public EV charger. Chargers are already available in the Village area on North Road.

The Community Hall has been exploring installing an EV charger since 2022 when the association received a grant from the Nanaimo Foundation for 50 per cent of the costs to install charging stations and reconfigure the parking area around the Lund Gathering Place, Elizabeth Iachelli, vice-president of the Hall’s board, told the Sounder.

“Our original plan to secure matching funds for the charging stations was to apply for one of the federal or provincial grants that were set up for this purpose,” Iachelli said. The Hall also reached out to the RDN and learned about the regional district’s plan to install a charger on Gabriola.

The licence of agreement now approved by the RDN board “provides significant advantages to the Hall in terms of maintenance, billing and operations over installing a charging station independently,” Iachelli said.

“We are building on a previous collaboration with the RDN in 2019 resulting in the designation of the Hall as an Emergency Reception Centre for the south end of Gabriola.”

Already, the Nanaimo Foundation grant the Hall received has been used to install a new, dedicated hydro pole and transformer, ground preparation and trenching.

Under the licence of agreement, the RDN will install a charging station with two heads. The RDN will retain ownership of the station and be responsible for all station operation and maintenance as well as retain ownership of any income or benefits, such as carbon credits, from the station.

The agreement will be reviewed every three years.