I/We the undersigned, petition Ottawa City Council to match the commitments already made by Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Laval, and Edmonton.
In the 2019-2022 Term-of-Council Priorities commit to a planning process to electrify the bus fleet, with a clear commitment to the following targets:
This is a joint petition between Ecology Ottawa, the Healthy Transportation Coalition, and the Electric Vehicle Council of Ottawa.
OC Transpo’s bus fleet is responsible for about 45% of the City of Ottawa’s corporate emissions with about 125,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted every year. A policy change can reduce this by 95% over 15 years. Electric buses reduce GHG emissions, improve air quality and reduce noise. Light Rail Transit (LRT) will reduce the intensity of transit emissions in Ottawa, but LRT success will lead to overall growth in bus transit in Ottawa as feeder bus routes grow to match the capacity of the LRT. Electric buses are much cheaper to operate, fuel and maintenance costs are much lower so more transit can be provided for the same operational budget.