REGINA - Councillors have been pushing to find any savings for taxpayers in the 2025 budget, which includes Ward 2 Coun. George Tsiklis.
On Tuesday, Tsiklis put forward an amendment to cancel the city's contract to purchase electric buses in 2026.
The city is planning to bring in upwards of 53 electric buses over the next few years through a contract with Nova Bus. With the buses and upgrades to the garage facility, it’s expected to cost the city $52 million.
Half of that money will be funded through the federal government, which leaves the city to find $26 million itself.
However, as Tsiklis pointed out, the city’s transit fleet reserve will only be at approximately $2 million in 2025.
He questioned how the city would pay for the new electrical buses.
According to city administration, one new electric bus would cost $1.8 million. Meanwhile, a new diesel bus costs $800,000, while a refurbished bus is anywhere from $350,000 to $450,000.
As Ward 10 Coun. Clark Bezo pointed out, it will cost the city $20 million a year to convert to electric vehicles.
Bezo asked city administration how they could pay off this amount. They mentioned potentially looking at increasing the mill rate or getting other funds from the government.
While Bezo and Tsiklis were adamant about cancelling this plan, one concern city administration brought up is the cancellation penalty with Nova Bus, which could be in the millions.
There were also concerns about backing away from a project partially funded by the federal government, which would affect future funding.
"We’re going to have to pay penalties with this motion. I’m strongly opposed to this," said Ward 8 Coun. Shanon Zachidniak.
On top of payments, electric buses are estimated to save $400,000 in operational costs in 17 years over diesel buses, which is around $24,000/year.
There are also environmental savings. "A fully electric bus fleet will result in annual fuel savings of 2,943,000 litres on average, reducing annual emissions by 2,934 tonnes," as previously stated by the city.
With all that in mind, city council ended up voting 8-3 to reject the amendment, with Bezo, Tsiklis and Dan Rashovich (Ward 1) voting in favour.
