Brandon council approves EV chargers at higher price

Brandon City Council has approved the installation of electric vehicle chargers — at a cost that’s $75,000 higher than expected.

Four chargers will be installed at the A.R. McDiarmid Civic Complex for about $120,000. They will be used for the city’s light-duty inspection vehicles as early as next year, as the city currently doesn’t have any EVs in its fleet.

Council unanimously approved the project to go forward at its regular meeting on Monday.

The original expected cost for the project was $45,000.

“Sometimes you go from an idea … to more of a detailed design and the prices do go up,” Ryan Nickel, the city’s director of planning and buildings, said at the meeting.

Bids from private contractors also came back at a higher price than expected. The winning bid went to Jamieson-Judd Ltd. at $103,288. Other bids were more than $115,000 each.

The province is contributing $20,000 to the project, a promise it made in April.

The four Level 2 chargers will have an output ranging from 3.3 kilowatts to 19kW, enough to add up to 50 kilometres of range per hour.

Part of the reason for the higher price tag was that the city decided to have a higher power source in the circuit, so that the station can be expanded to charge four more vehicles in the future, Nickel said. That would be able to service a “substantial part” of the city’s sedans that are at the civic complex.

“It’s a small step, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

The decision is also part of Brandon’s goal of having net-zero emissions by 2050.

The cost of the installation was a worry for one Brandon resident at Monday’s meeting.

James Epp said the hefty bill might not be the best idea for the output the city will get, at least without more thought.

“What are we getting out of this?” Epp asked administration. “We need to be smart with our money decisions right now.”

Epp advised council to not make a decision on Monday but instead defer it until budget deliberations.

He and two other residents who spoke on the matter were only allowed to speak to council at the start of the meeting, roughly an hour and a half before council addressed and voted on the item.

“Defer this to budget, have some more time, get administration to maybe provide some clarifications on is this the best value the city can get,” he said. “And then build it.”

Epp told council his thoughts on the matter weren’t fully flushed out because residents, unlike council members, aren’t given copies of the full agenda until the day of the meeting.

Nickel said people “are right to raise some questions” if they look at the project as a short-term financial decision.

“When we’re talking about some of these goals, we’re trying to think about a little bit longer term,” Nickel said.

“When we’re thinking about the life cycle of charging stations — such as this, which would be 20-plus years — and some of the benefits we’d see over that time horizon — such as fuel consumption — it starts to make a little bit more sense,” he said.

Nickel said the city will have to replace its aging gas-powered fleet as early as next year, and that it had pushed back its purchase for a couple of years already.

The provincial government has said developing a provincewide charging network is “a crucial step in meeting Manitoba’s environmental and energy goals.”

“Supporting the build out of EV charging infrastructure and establishing a provincewide EV charging network will reduce reliance on expensive imported fossil fuels and provide clean and affordable electricity to help Manitobans participate in the transition to a cleaner, more sustainable transportation future,” a provincial spokesperson wrote last month.

While hitting climate change goals can be “scary, big and expensive,” it’s also important to “get the ball rolling,” Coun. Tyson Tame (Ward 10) said during the meeting.

Tame was among a few councillors who declared they would be supporting the motion before the vote took place. Coun. Barry Cullen (Ward 3) was one of the councillors who supported Tame’s statement.

“The first step is always the toughest one to take,” Cullen said. “This is a logical step to make.”

“I’m hoping this will be a successful piece we’ll look back on two years from now.”

The city first looked at getting EVs about a dozen years ago, but federal funding didn’t come through and the plan was scrapped, Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said in an interview after the meeting.

Quentin Robinson, another Brandon resident, spoke in favour of the proposal at the start of the meeting.

“We don’t have time for more planning — we have the technology we need and we need to act now,” said Robinson, who is a member of Sustainable Brandon.

Robinson said he has driven an EV year-round for the last four and a half years and that he “hopes with all his heart” the city fulfils its plan to electrify its vehicles.

The city’s self-imposed climate change target of net-zero emissions by 2050 and specific targets along the way are passing by without much progress, warned Madelyn Robinson, who came with Quentin and is also involved with Sustainable Brandon

“Transitioning our city vehicle fleet to electric will be one of the most impactful actions we can do to make a serious start on this target,” she said.

Failure to approve the tender would have made the city’s goal of having net-zero emissions “challenging,” according to a staff report on the EV chargers.

Brandon currently has 121 light-duty vehicles, 123 heavy-duty vehicles and 56 pieces of other equipment like forklifts and composters, according to the city’s website.

Nickel said the project will be about 30 to 40 per cent complete by the end of this year, with the remaining work to be done next year.

» alambert@brandonsun.com