Lion school bus woes should make Quebec revisit electrification plan, critics say

Many school bus routes in Quebec remained cancelled Monday following the government's decision to pull all Lion buses out of service after a bus in Montreal caught fire last week.

The abrupt withdrawal of 1,200 Lion electric school buses from the roads in Quebec is prompting renewed criticism of the provincial government’s approach to electrification — and of its decision to give one local company a virtual monopoly.

Many school bus routes in Quebec remained cancelled Monday following the government’s decision to pull all Lion buses out of service after a bus in Montreal caught fire last week.

Lion has sent instructions to school bus operators for the required inspections and repairs, apparently related to possible wiring issues. Three Lion buses have caught fire in the last year, though nobody has been injured and the buses’ batteries were not involved.

Valérie Tremblay, co-coordinator of the Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance, said the fires will “clearly discourage” school bus operators from switching to electric vehicles, both for their own interests and because school boards and parents may have concerns.

She’s hoping the issue will push the Quebec government to revise the criteria for its electric school bus subsidies, which until now have ensured that the majority of electric buses sold in the province are made by Lion.

“Perhaps … allowing other manufacturers to sell their vehicles in Quebec will give the transition a second wind,” she said.

In 2021, Quebec mandated that all new school buses purchased in the province be electric as part of a goal to electrify 65 per cent of its bus fleet by 2030. But the subsidies it offers to bus operators to buy electric vehicles require that the buses be assembled in Canada, meaning that Lion is the main beneficiary of the program.

The province was trying to support a local company, Tremblay said, since Lion is headquartered in St.-Jérôme, Que. “I think it was really a matter of political will,” she said.