Jim Church is blazing a trail for condo strata councils in the region.

“The wave is coming,” said the recently retired physician.

Church is the strata council vice president of his 29-unit Cordova Bay condo building. Over the past year, Church spearheaded his buildings’ EV infrastructure project, becoming the Capital Region’s first multi-family complex to go electric.

“I think it was really important for us to do what we could as far as environment, maintaining property value for our owners and taking advantage of the available incentives — government incentives and rebates,” said Church.

Church spent months speaking with various contractors and researching different government rebate programs. In the end, Church says the final bill worked out to $750 per unit to cover the infrastructure or $2300 for those who also installed their own charger. That total includes provincial and municipal rebates which covered approximately half of the original cost.

Church’s building went with level 2 chargers which he says can charge a vehicle from empty to full in approximately 6-8 hours. Despite only three of the 29 units currently own an electric vehicle, Church says residents in his building voiced their unanimous support for the project.

“We had 100 per cent approval of the project by owners,” said Church, adding with government mandates he believes it’s only a matter of time before society fully embraces EV technology. “If somebody drives up to your home that’s for sale and you don’t have that EV charging system and they’re driving an EV, they’re just going to say ‘goodbye’.”

One resident CHEK News spoke with says she purchased her first electric vehicle just weeks after the building’s infrastructure was in place.

“We love it,” said Karen Lee, who drives a Nissan Leaf. “

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