The bylaw tracker serves as the comprehensive Canadian guide to those jurisdictions making sure MURBS, condos and stratas are EV-ready

From coast-to-coast-to-coast in Canada, millions of multi-unit residential building, condo and strata residents are trying to navigate securing EV charging at home.

They are finding an inconsistent patchwork of rules and regulations that vary city to city and with minimal provincial or federal oversight.

“Electric Autonomy offers national leading reporting on electric vehicles and the ecosystem that surrounds them. We hear time and again how challenging it is to secure charging in multi-unit residential buildings,” says Nino Di Cara, founder of Electric Autonomy.

“The EV-readiness bylaw tracker is our response to an acute public need for clarity on the rules and up-to-date information. Most importantly, this crucial information is now accessible in one place.”

Since 2022, Electric Autonomy has published annual roundups of EV-ready bylaws in our “Highrise Headaches” series and has held webinars on the subject.

However, the increasing uptake of EVs and pressure on governments to prepare infrastructure to support them requires a more comprehensive method of gathering and publishing the information.

The result is a Canada first: our national EV-ready bylaw tracker.

Accessing the directory

The EV-readiness bylaw tracker is available on the Electric Autonomy website.

“With rules around MURBs varying from territory to territory, resources like [Electric Autonomy]’s EV-readiness tracker are more important than ever,” says Carter Li, CEO and Co-Founder of SWTCH.

The tracker reflects the current bylaws governing municipalities and provinces requiring new multi-unit residential buildings, condos and stratas to be EV-ready. It is updated regularly to reflect evolving regulations and bylaws surrounding EV charging.

To date Canada’s federal building code does not require access to EV charging. Today, at a provincial level in Canada, just British Columbia has implemented EV-readiness requirements.

(Ontario was the first province to have EV-ready building code regulations in 2017. However, that policy move was repealed in 2018 after the Conservative Party formed the government.)

Meanwhile, Quebec has EV-ready building code requirements for single homes and townhomes. But those bylaws do not extend to multi-unit residential buildings, condos or stratas in the province. And Nova Scotia is investigating EV-ready requirements, but has not implemented any, yet.

So, it largely falls to municipalities in Canada to choose to implement bylaws regarding EV-readiness for multi-unit residential buildings, condos and stratas.

As the tracker reflects, roughly 40 cities and municipalities across Canada have done this. However they are situated in just three provinces and most of these jurisdictions are concentrated in B.C.

“While much needed, Canadian EV-readiness legislation is leaving many developers owners and residents of multi-unit buildings with more questions than answers,” says Li.

“Drafting and ratifying new legislation was the hard part. Now, with this tool in hand, the industry can focus on increasing access to reliable and affordable EV charging infrastructure right at home.”