Cold Weather + Electric Buses = Surprise Disaster (Not Really) - Billions wasted
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
179.72946
Summary
Regina, Canada is going all-in on electric buses and the federal government is footing the bill for $26 million worth of electric buses. What kind of boondoggle is this? And why should you be mad about it?
Transcript
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Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. It is Tuesday, December the 14th. I hope you're
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having a great start to your Tuesday morning, 4.13am with the big blue mug of coffee. Thank
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you so much for being part of this channel. Nine sleeps until Christmas. Merry Christmas
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to you. I want you to know, regardless of where you live in Canada, even if I don't
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mention the name of your city in this video, there's a saying, there's only one taxpayer
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and you're on the hook for part of this boondoggle and you should be mad about it. And I'm mad
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about it because I live in one of the cities that are going to be mentioned here. And we're
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talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer spending. And again, you're on
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the hook for part of it because you're one of the taxpayers. It's a strange place where
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we live in Canada. We have this thing called weather. Very odd. You think about it. It
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can be plus 30 degrees in the summertime in Canada and minus 30 in the wintertime or even
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colder, but that's a 60 degree swing. Here in Calgary alone, yesterday it was 10 degrees.
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It'll be minus 18 next Monday. So think about that. So this is a totally predictable boondoggle
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boondoggle I'm going to talk about here. And I'm talking about electric vehicles because
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when it gets cold, electric vehicles don't work as good because, well, it's cold. I saw
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this article on the Daily Mail yesterday, just to give you a little bit of a point of reference
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here. Ford's electric hopes unravel as it pulls the plug on battery powered F-150 after
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a $19.5 billion loss. I used to have a web page under my own name and I had a segment called
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the Mad Rush to be Green. And the greenies are trying to get us to move on to electric
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vehicles. Up until just recently, Canada had an electric vehicle mandate. It was supposed
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to really kick in for the first part of it, well, in about 16 days. But it was delayed for
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a period so the government could study it. We haven't heard what's happened with that
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study, but I'm fully expecting the liberals will bring back the EV mandate. Maybe just
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push it a year or two down the road. But this is a boondoggle of epic proportions because
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I want to talk about electric buses. Now, what I'm going to do here is I'm going to show you
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these articles in reverse order. So this is an article from earlier this year, April 25th,
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electric buses take to Regina's streets next week. Seven zero emission buses earlier this
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year in Regina. And we'll go down here. The seven buses were bought for $1.37 million each.
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The city of Regina split the bill with the government of Canada. So that's why I'm saying
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you're on the hook for this, folks. And they're expecting 13 more buses, bumping the electric
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fleet to 20. Now, going back a little bit. January 24th, 2024, Regina Transit signs deal to buy 20
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electric buses. And note the name of the company that they're buying the buses from. Nova Bus. This
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is important. We're going to come back to it in just a moment. Then we move back in time a little
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further. Back to March the 15th. Oh, the Ides of March again. 2023. Talking Mayor Sandra Masters here.
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We have a $52 million project. We asked the federal government for 50% under one of their funding
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buckets. And we were successful. So you, the taxpayer of Canada, are on the hook for $26 million just for
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Regina. Keep in mind, a lot of city are buying buses. And this just on X. Reload here. This just on X.
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What? Yesterday? The president of the transit union, Sukwinder Singh, told Regina's mayor
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and council that the city's brand new $2 million electric buses are only drivable for 1.5 to 3
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hours in the winter before their battery dies. Regina currently has seven electric buses in its
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fleet with 13 more planned for delivery in 2026 as part of the city's climate change action plan.
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They had a combined cost of $50 million, which was split between the city and the federal
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government. Now this is just Regina. But again, this money affects you regardless of where you
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live. And I live in Calgary. Let's find out where Calgary's buses were purchased and how much they're
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paying. But before we get to that, let's hear from Mr. Singh. If you're asking me, I'm not in favor of
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electric buses at all. It's not for the Saskatchewan weather. For the winter, their battery dies very
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quickly and they can just run for two, three hours. That's all. That's very interesting. If we cut
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electric buses, got rid of that fleet to maintain services, would you be happy with that from the
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union president? I will be happy with that. Before we were happy with the electric buses also when we
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haven't seen them on the road there because it will save some fuel, we were thinking, and it's going
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with the environment there. We're happy with that. But now when we see after two hours of drive,
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their battery comes to 15%. Oh wow. Didn't even know that. It's on Facebook everywhere last Friday.
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There was four buses. Four buses we have to change off with a 15% battery. I think with a one charge,
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the maximum how many? 200 kilometers they can go with one charge, full charge. So we are spending money on
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electricity there too, right? If you're saving on fuel, we're spending on electricity and we can't
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rely on them. Whether diesel buses, we have a sign, we know that it will go this long.
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Electric buses, no. And especially in winter, a big no. So these buses are virtually useless when it
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gets cold outside. I've read that an electric bus loses 40% of its range when it hits minus seven.
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I wonder what happens when it hits minus 27, which happens regularly where I live.
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And you're on the hook for $26 million of federal taxpayer money to pay for buses that don't work
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properly in Regina. But hold on to your hats, folks, because there are a lot bigger cities in
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this country using Nova buses than just Regina. And one of them is Calgary, where I live. And holy
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crap, we're going to be getting into the billions of dollars pretty soon. 40-foot electric buses. This is
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Calgary Transit. What's the latest update on Calgary Transit's 40-foot battery electric buses?
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On July 24, 2025, we awarded longtime Canadian supplier Nova Bus, part of the Volvo Group,
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as a successful vendor for the purchase of 120 zero-emission, 40-foot battery electric buses to
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replace end-of-life diesel buses. How much money are you on the hook for our buses here in Calgary?
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Really? Funding includes grant funding from Infrastructure Canada's zero-emission transit
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fund. Your money, up to $220 million. Canada Infrastructure Bank financing, $123 million.
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And me right here in Calgary city funding, $100 million. Do the math. By the way, just to give
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you an idea of what your bus looks like, these are the buses you're buying for me here in Calgary
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that don't work properly when the temperature drops below zero.
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Now hold on to your hats, because a lot of cities across this country are buying Nova buses that don't
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work in the cold. Many Canadian centers, including Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Saskatoon, and Banff,
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and let's go down here, there's a lot more. Toronto, Brampton, Durham, Waterloo, Guelph, Oakville,
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York Region, Longay, Quebec City, Gatineau, Sherbrick, Trois-Rivières, all buying Nova buses. You can go over
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to Google. Google it. Here's some of the highlights. There's the $120 for Calgary Transit. You're buying
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$541 of these duds for the TTC in Toronto, $339 for Quebec Transit. Do the math. This amounts to
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billions and billions of wasted taxpayer dollars, your money. And this doesn't even include all the
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infrastructure for these things. I bet you they didn't calculate all the extra charging of these
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buses if they only work for an hour and a half to three hours a day. And we have problems here in
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Alberta, a province that has more energy than freaking God, with brownouts in the middle of
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the wintertime because we don't have enough energy here. How is this going to tax our system? And who's
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paying for all the electricity to charge these stupid things? And what happens if they break down?
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Or the company goes out of business, which happens. Or a battery goes, which probably costs a million
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dollars to replace. The mad rush to be green. It ends up costing you a lot of your green.
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Thanks for watching. If you liked the video, which you probably didn't, considering the subject matter.
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