Electric Bus Scandal Widens, Kram Finds

 

Electric Bus Scandal Widens, Kram Finds

Michael Kram, MP for Regina-Wascana has discovered that the federal government made no effort to track whether electric buses were in any way contributing to a reduction of emissions nor to track whether the buses functioned properly in winter.

Problems with the City of Regina’s fleet of electric buses came to light last December when Amalgamated Transit Union Local 588 Regina president Sukhwinder Gainda publicly stated that the buses cannot function longer than three hours in cold weather. City Councillor Clark Bezo attempted to make a motion to have the contract for further buses cancelled, but his motion was ruled out of order.

The City has taken delivery of seven of its projected 20 electric buses. The purchase is jointly funded by the federal and municipal government, which each contributed $26,106,500 toward the 20 buses and the infrastructure for their charging stations for a total investment of over $52.2 million.

MP Kram submitted an Order Paper Question to the federal ministry of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada. In its reply, the ministry stated that “Emissions data are not tracked for projects funded by the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund or the Rural Transit Solutions Fund” and that, on the subject of performance, “Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada has nothing to report, as operational planning and fleet management decisions rest with municipal transit agencies, who assess their own service needs and ensure their fleets are reliable under local operating and weather conditions.”

“This reflects badly on both levels of government,” Kram said. “First, it has long been typical of this Liberal government to throw taxpayers’ money away on pet projects without any guardrails in place to see if those projects are delivering results. Second, especially in light of recent mill rate increases, it is appalling that the municipal government would simply grab a bag of co-funded federal money with no consideration of whether the vehicles were suitable. The federal government was expecting the City to make this assessment, but Council failed to do so even when the union and Councillor Bezo urged them to take a second look.”

The full Order Paper question and response can be found online at:

Q-804 (45-1) - Written Questions - House of Commons of Canada

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