Crappy situation, but probably should have talked to the utility or an electrician and done his due diligence first
The CBC article doesn't really frame the guys expectation within the larger context of what is considered 'normal' - and it comes off like some hard luck story. The guy wants to install an 80amp charger, which is basically the top end of 'level 2 charging' and is a close to a fast charger as you can get in your own house. Its double the standard size and for context - its basically the electrical load of adding a 2nd house running full tilt. If he wanted to add a 2nd house to the property, I don't think any of us would have a problem with him shouldering the cost of a service upgrade.
Effectively what everyone wants to do is have access to peak power whenever they want. The utility infrastructure isn't built for that, and frankly its totally unnecessary. By using load management, you can easily work within the available power supply and do everything you want. Do you really need to have your electric dryer running, EV charging, and heat blasting, cooking a turkey in your electric oven and hot tub running all at the same time? If you do - pay for the electrical upgrade. Alternatively, load management electrical panels can allow you to shuffle the loads around so that you can still have all these circuits - but stick with your standard electrical service, and just shuffle the timing of the loads. You can buy electrical panels with built in load management circuits, or they make simpler external load management splitter boxes that switch between the EV circuit and your dryer circuit, so you don't need to change the panel. Natural gas stove frees up a circuit, likewise - switching to a heat pump dryer or water heater may free up a circuit as well. Next time you go replace your heat pump, look up low temp options (that work fine in the lower mainland, but probably not great for interior), and ditch that 10kw electric coil, boom - another circuit. Lots of options to reduce your electrical load.
I can understand why someone would instinctively say - "sure, give me the charger that will do it in 4 hrs" versus the standard 8-10hr option, but once you've thought about it for a minute and realize the extent of the upgrades required it starts to make a lot less sense. Home chargers are for charging overnight - which works perfectly well on a 40amp charger. Likewise, you have minimal other electrical loads overnight - perfect for a load management solution.