MPCA chair among group urging province to switch to electric school buses

A coalition of environmental groups want to see all of Ontario’s yellow school buses turned green.

The groups, including Ecology Ottawa and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), released a report urging the City of Ottawa and the provincial government to convert the over 20,000 school buses used across Ontario to electric power.

Manor Park Community Association Environmental Sustainability Chair Dr. Eugenie Waters was among them. Representing CAPE, she spoke during a webinar in February.

Eugenie’s presentation addressed the impact of diesel fumes and air pollution on public health.

Air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and black carbons (i.e. soot) are key markers of pollutants that have a detrimental effect on people’s health throughout their lives.

They contribute to, and exacerbate, chronic health problems such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), and lung cancer.

Eugenie noted that asthma alone is responsible for a large number of emergency room visits.

She described the campaign to accelerate the transition from diesel-emitting to electric school buses as “a planetary health intervention.”

Because human health is intertwined with the environment, improving the environment brings public health benefits that can “accrue” almost immediately.
“Reducing exposure to traffic-related air pollution can directly improve the health of school children, school bus drivers and anyone who lives near major roads or highways in our communities.”

She noted school buses are just one contributor of air pollutants.

“There’s no silver bullet. We have to tackle emissions from all sorts of vehicles.”

Economic benefits

Cheryl Randall, a climate change campaign organizer with Ecology Ottawa who hosted the webinar, said while the up-front costs of switching to electric vehicles would be high, the maintenance costs would be cheaper in the long-term and offer “a whole host of indirect economic benefits.”

She says there’s federal funding available to cover half of the cost of converting buses to electric.

“We want to take this issue to the provincial government . . . and we want them to provide funding, to leverage this federal funding.”