Federal and provincial politicians say the deal is the largest purchase of electric buses in North America
The governments of Canada and Quebec are working together to buy 1,229 electric buses for $2.1 billion.
The buses will be made in Quebec, the two companies said in a joint announcement on Monday.
“This is the biggest project in North America to buy electric buses. “This is a huge vote of confidence in the economy of Quebec,” said Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister in charge of intergovernmental affairs.
The amount that Ottawa is giving is $780 million, and Quebec is spending $1.1 billion. The remaining $234 million will be paid for by the 10 public transit companies that will add the electric buses to their fleets.
These 10 transportation companies are:
- Société de transport de Montréal (STM).
- Société de transport de l’Outaouais (STO).
- Société de transport de Sherbrooke (STS).
- Société de transport de Trois-Rivières (STTR).
- Société de transport de Lévis (STL).
- Société de transport du Saguenay (STS).
- Société de transport de Laval (STL).
- Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL).
- Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC).
- Exo.
The range of the cars will be at least 300 kilometers. Half of them will be given to the STM, which is in charge of the project and will make sure that buses are bought.
The cars will be sent out over a period of four years, and everything should be done by 2027.
Up to two Nova Bus factories will have to make them. The chassis will be made at the Saint-Francois-du-Lac plant, which has 350 people working there. The final assembly will be done at the Saint-Eustache facility, which has 800 people working there.
The two governments have agreed that the buses must be made with 25% Canadian parts and that the final assembly must take place in Canada.
The announcement was made at the Nova Bus facility in Saint-Eustache, Quebec, which is about 35 kilometers northwest of Montreal.
Geneviève Guilbault, who is in charge of transportation, said that these vehicles will help cut 930,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
She said that the call for bids has been talked about for a while and is part of the province’s $9 billion plan to build a green economy, which was put forward by Premier Francois Legault’s government.
Guilbault said that a big chunk of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, so a good chunk of this budget goes to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.
She said on Twitter that the project shows a “firm desire to reduce our GHG emissions and develop our green economy.”
Ottawa’s help is part of a plan by the federal government to buy 5,000 buses with no emissions over the next five years.
Éric Alan Caldwell, chair of STM and member of the Montreal executive council, said that buses have always run on diesel.
Since 2013, the STM has been buying hybrid buses. By 2040, he said, all of its buses should be electric.
Caldwell said that a typical bus in Quebec will last for about 16 years.
On Twitter, the STM says that it is glad that both levels of government are willing to work together to make this historic order possible.
“From 2025 on, more and more electric buses will be used by Montrealers,” the transit company said. This will make public transportation more appealing and make it easier for people to breathe in the city.