The federal government is seeking to electrify school bus fleets nationwide.
The transportation sector accounts for 25% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, while Canada generates 80% of its electricity from zero emission power sources. Shifting vehicles toward zero-emission alternatives presents an opportunity for mission reductions, the government believes.
In this vein, Canada this month confirmed an investment of $300,000 to Switzer-Carty Transportation Services through the Zero Emission Transit Fund to support the company’s plan to transition their school bus fleet from diesel to electric.
“Electrifying a school bus fleet is about more than replacing diesel buses with electric ones,” says Dan Maradin, chief executive officer of Switzer-Carty Transportation Services. “This investment has helped us understand what that transition will look like for our fleet and how we can do it responsibly, while continuing to provide safe and reliable transportation.”
Switzer-Carty transports over 125,000 students across 16 school districts every day.
“Across Ontario, hundreds of thousands of young students ride on school buses,” says Karina Gould, Member of Parliament for Burlington. “By working with school bus operators to electrify their fleets, we are helping them cut carbon emissions and reduce the environmental impact of getting our kids to school safely.”
Coordinated with Canada Infrastructure Bank’s $1.5 billion Zero Emission Bus Initiative, the Zero Emission Transit Fund supports the federal government’s commitment to help purchase 5,000 zero emission buses for transportation in Canada.
Other ZETF recipients include Fredericton, which is in the process of integrating zero emissions transit.
Even rural regions of Nova Scotia are electrifying their bus fleets.