The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) will soon charge EV users to use municipal charging stations after council approved the move on March 2.
The fees will be adopted in phases, starting with a $1-per-hour fee at chargers outside of the day lots this spring.
Phase 2 will expand user fees to the day lots, again starting at $1 per hour and with a ceiling of $5 per day. Fees for charging stations outside of the day lots will also rise to $2 per hour in Phase 2.
Fees at day lot stations will be on top of parking fees.
“We want to support people—residents, commuters and visitors, and even the ones who don’t have home charging—we want to make it an affordable and viable option for everyone to have an electric vehicle in Whistler,” said climate action coordinator Luisa Burhenne, in a presentation to council.
“But on the other hand, we want to make sure that everyone who requires public charging has access to public charging, so we want to increase turnover. We want to incentivize people to charge at home.
“So the cost needs to be cheaper than operating an internal combustion engine vehicle, but it needs to be higher than charging at home.”
The RMOW currently owns 19 chargers that can accommodate 35 vehicles—15 of which have been monitored to analyze current demand, Burhenne said.
Monitoring has shown an average charging length of three hours, with 57 sessions per month, she said, and with a daytime usage of 50 per cent.
A third phase of the user fees strategy proposes to use usage data gleaned from the first two phases to build a long-term strategy around fees, primarily with a goal of keeping EV commuting more cost-effective than driving a traditional car.
“If the daytime usage goes below 40 per cent, we know that the fee may be too high,” Burhenne said.
“If there’s really high demand and the daytime utilization goes over 75 per cent, we need to further incentivize turnover and can further increase the fee.”
All user fee adjustments at the charging stations in the day lots will be discussed with the Day Lot Operating Committee and aligned with day lot parking rate changes, Burhenne added.
OLYMPIC PLAZA WASHROOMS TO
OPEN IN MAY
A project to build two washrooms in Whistler Village—one at the Lost Lake PassivHaus and one at Whistler Olympic Plaza—is expected to be delivered on time and within the approved budget of $2.7 million, according to a presentation at the March 2 Committee of the Whole from facilities construction manager Andrew Chalk.
The PassiveHaus washrooms opened to the public on Dec. 24, while the washrooms at Olympic Plaza are scheduled for a May opening.
Still on tap for 2021 is a new washroom building at the Gateway Loop, which has an approved budget of $1.74 million.
“The anticipated schedule for the work begins later this month with the contractor [carrying out] site preparation and clearing, which will include a few of the trees [being removed],” Chalk said.
Construction is expected to begin in April, with a planned opening by the end of the year.
Beyond that, the RMOW plans to repair washrooms at the Conference Centre, and is still considering washrooms for the Day Lots (though a recent grant application for that project was declined, Chalk noted).
