Michelle Bellegarde at Saskatchewan’s Little Black Bear First Nation, which will be home to the first Level 3 electric vehicle charger on reserve land owned by a First Nation in Canada.Mike Dubois/Supplied
When electric vehicle chargers open on Saskatchewan’s Little Black Bear First Nation in June, they will be among the first Level 3 chargers in operation that are owned by a First Nation in Canada.
They will join a handful of new installations that are bringing First Nations into the high-speed charging business: one in northern British Columbia owned and operated by the Gitanyow First Nation; others nearing launch in Iskut, B.C., and on the Kapawe’no First Nation in northern Alberta.
Together, they represent a breakthrough for First Nations in the ownership of this important technology at the frontier of EV charging. (While there are many other charging stations on First Nation lands in British Columbia and Alberta, they’re owned and run by power companies.)
“When EVs started coming and making headlines, our leadership wanted to get involved,” said Michelle Bellegarde, who is in her late 40s and a consultant for Little Black Bear First Nation, a band of Cree and Assiniboine nations in southern Saskatchewan.
“This is a big deal in our long-term climate goals. … One of these days, when my grandkids are big, they’re going to say ‘This is what my grandma did.’”
One of the big challenges for anyone who owns an EV or is thinking of buying one is a current lack of fast chargers, especially when outside of cities. Fast chargers, like these that will be on the Little Black Bear First Nation help solve that problem, while offering significant benefits to the community. Bellegarde sees the chargers as a way to boost travel and tourism in an area about 45 minutes northeast of Regina that offers cross-country skiing, fishing, boating and berry-picking.
Beyond tourism, the chargers will also inspire Indigenous youth to learn about new technology as the country transitions to cleaner forms of energy.
“It’s opening up a whole new field for our nation to get the youth involved in other EV projects, zero-emission projects. It’s going to be exciting,” Bellegarde said.
In 2022, Bellegarde started applying for grants to support two Level 3 fast chargers on a site that already includes a Petro-Canada, Tim Hortons and cannabis shop.
The total project cost is about $360,000. Bellegarde secured $200,000 from SaskPower and another $160,000 from a business venture grant through Indigenous Services Canada. But there are still other unknown costs for the maintenance and operation of the chargers when they are up and running.
Jessica Tait, the sustainable transportation manager at Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE), an Ottawa-based social enterprise that supports Indigenous communities in the clean energy transformation, says every First Nation with which it’s working is facing different types of challenges, and “they’re all leading with great values at the core of their projects.”
ICE is a valuable resource for funding; it runs the Charge Up program, which offers up to a total of $1.6-million, covering up to 75 per cent of EV charging-station installation costs, to Indigenous communities and businesses. Charge Up, which launched in March, 2022, is supported by Natural Resources Canada’s Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP). The program offers funds, but Tait also offers first-hand support and advice to Indigenous leaders with filling out the application and answering questions about EV chargers to help make it faster to apply and receive approval for funding.
While Bellegarde received $200,000 from SaskPower, some of that money came from the same pot as Natural Resource Canada’s ZEVIP, which also funds ICE’s Charge Up Program.
“We are working with a lot of community champions – ambassadors who have a lot of knowledge about different clean energy initiatives, who are bringing their ideas to their communities. [The EV transition] aligns with their cultural values and they want to be the first in the community to set the example,” Tait said. “They [community leaders] aim to reduce the fear about EVs – range anxiety, cold temperatures, the costs – and give the tools to combat misinformation.”
Tait has spoken to hundreds of interested parties and received 24 applications for funding from Indigenous communities from northern B.C. to St. John’s to Inuvik, NWT.
Several projects have been completed, including at the White Pine Lodge Algonquin, which is about 20 minutes east of Huntsville, Ont., and near the entrance to Algonquin Park. It’s an Indigenous-owned business operated by chief operating officer Philip McRoberts and chief executive officer Emily Porter, who is a member of the Six Nations Indian Reserve. The business includes a new lodge that is currently being built, an Indigenous art gallery, Indigenous workshops and Algonquin Park adventure tours. McRoberts and Porter completed their EV charger installations even before building 12 cabins at their lodge.
Emily Porter, chief executive officer of White Pine Lodge Algonquin Inc., stands in front of EV chargers that her business installed with the help of Indigenous Clean Energy's Charge Up program.Supplied
“We actually got the chargers up and running faster than we could build our first cabin. It’s a good testament to how well that process worked with Indigenous Clean Energy,” McRoberts said.
They started the EV project a year ago, by applying for funding through ICE’s Charge Up Program. Within 45 days, their application was approved for $30,000 to install four Level 2 EV chargers. A few months later, the chargers were up and running at a total cost of nearly $100,000, after upgrading their hydro, getting a new primary line, transformer and land cable. The remaining $70,000 was paid out of pocket.
“This is absolutely monumental for White Pine. Being given this opportunity to put in these EV chargers and bring in guests who previously didn’t have the option to stay somewhere that can accommodate their vehicle and offer Indigenous culture, knowledge and programming. It means absolutely everything to me,” said Porter.
She said sustainability can often be a greenwashing term.
“For us, we live it and breathe it. We’re trying to keep everything as pristine as we can in all of our processes,” said Porter.
Because there’s no other EV infrastructure around Algonquin Park, the move will boost business and the bottom line, said McRoberts.
“It’s vital to get the infrastructure up and running to increase tourism and attract more business. … Having the chargers is going to accelerate us faster, which means more jobs, and specifically, more jobs for Indigenous youth. We have Indigenous artists at our art gallery and the more people we have here, the more art we’re selling and the more artists we’re supporting,” McRoberts said.
“Despite the added cost, we had to take the plunge,” Porter said. “I sincerely hope that other Indigenous businesses in other communities decide this is something they should do for themselves – not only for the planet, but at the end of the day, it will accelerate their business in the future.”
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected from its original version to reflect that the station on Little Black Bear First Nation will be one of the first, not the first.