@GRA
Not sure how my comments are irrelevant, I think they get right to the heart of the matter.
You said:
... I'm saying that while I'm in firm agreement that Vancouver should switch from providing free charging to making people pay for it, the odds of them doing so while pricing it profitably are minimal. After all, if it were possible to make public charging profitable there would be no need for governments to provide it, but we have 6.5 years of proof showing that it isn't, so barring some major technological breakthrough ...
I raised the topic of government complicity with big oil's agenda because it's the major reason that for profit charging vendors are struggling to make money. If gasoline was $6.27 per gallon, those same vendors could make decent margins and still undercut gas prices.
What's likely to happen is that the big oil companies will roll out EV charging infrastructure, like Shell has already announced they'll do:
https://electrek.co/2017/02/01/shell-electric-vehicle-chargers-gas-stations/
They'll use their political influence to muscle in, with sweetheart deals and government (our) money, to build out nation-wide EV charging infrastructure, then stick it to the consumer by raising gas prices while also setting EV charging at a price point that earns them huge profits. Oligarchies hate competition...