City of Regina to get more than $26M from Ottawa for electric buses

The wheels on the electric bus go round and round.

Mayor Sandra Masters said Tuesday the City of Regina will be receiving $26.1 million in funding from Ottawa to cover half of the cost of its public transit electrification project.

“We have a $52-million project. We asked the federal government for 50 per cent under one of their funding buckets and we were successful,” Masters said.

The mayor added the project is centred around adding electric buses to the city’s transit fleet and building the necessary electric-vehicle charging infrastructure needed to allow the transition to an all-electric fleet.

“Anytime you’re looking to invest in something that, over the course of a lifetime of assets, it’s going to save massive amounts of money on fuel costs into the future … Then to cover 50 per cent of that cost into any project is enormously significant,” she added.

The electrification project is set to be completed by 2039. The buses currently in service will not be retired before reaching the end of their life.