Premier Iain Rankin announced Thursday that the province is investing more than $37 million to help bring 60 new battery-operated, electric buses to Halifax Regional Municipality in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.
Once in service, Rankin said these electric buses are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3,800 tonnes annually by 2030.
“Expanding Halifax Transit’s fleet to include new electric buses will not only improve the capacity of public transit, but it will help us achieve our ambitious climate change goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050,” Rankin said at a press conference on Thursday.
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According to the province, the funding will also be used to buy related charging equipment for the buses and expand the Ragged Lake Transit Centre to place in the new fleet.
The facility will also go green by having solar panels installed to achieve a net-zero standard.
Thursday’s announcement, which was based Timberlea-Prospect, comes as the Liberal Rankin government is expected to call a summer election in the coming days.
The project costs $112 million in total. The federal government is contributing $44.8 million and the Halifax Regional Municipality is contributing $29.8 million.
Construction on the facility is expected to begin in 2022 and be completed by 2023. The buses are expected to be in service following their completion.
In the meantime, the request for proposals for the electric buses will be issued later this summer.
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