Published on
PETERBOROUGH, March 24, 2026 – Every day across Canada, roughly 2 million children go to school in a diesel bus. These buses are linked to health problems, including asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers. The first-ever Electric School Bus Report Card, released today by the Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance (CESBA), raises the alarm over the slow and uneven progress to electrify these buses. The report calls for dedicated federal funding to accelerate investment in electric buses that are better for our health and economy.
"More than 30,000 school buses in Canada are approaching end of life and need replacement in the next 2 to 7 years,” says Valérie Tremblay, lead of Sustainable Mobility at Green Communities Canada and coordinator of CESBA. “It is not in our best interest to continue importing diesel school buses from south of the border when we can manufacture electric buses right here in Canada.”
The report ranks provinces across four key areas: fleet electrification, policy commitments, funding, and charging infrastructure. Three factors separate leading provinces from lagging ones: clear policy targets, predictable federal funding, and charging infrastructure readiness.
The report highlights major disparities across the country.
- Prince Edward Island leads with 33 per cent of its school bus fleet electrified. P.E.I.’s strengths are its centralized fleet management, clear targets, and early procurement investments.
- Quebec is second with 15 per cent of its fleet electrified. With over 1,600 electric school buses, Quebec boasts the largest electric school bus fleet in the country. Quebec’s transition has been supported by robust incentives and clear targets.
- British Columbia ranks third with 5 per cent of its fleet electrified. B.C. stands out for its innovation (including Canada’s first vehicle-to-grid pilot with electric school buses) and its charging infrastructure.
- New Brunswick is in fourth place, showing leadership with a target to electrify fleets by 2035, but is still early in its transition with only 1 per cent of school buses being electric.
- Failing for now: Ontario and Alberta have the largest fleets in Canada, and both provinces bring up the rear with less than 1 per cent of their fleets electrified and no clear targets or funding.
Recommendations
CESBA recommends that the federal government allocate at least $250 million per year exclusively to the electrification of school transportation through the Canada Public Transit Fund (CPTF). This would provide stable and predictable funding to school bus consortia, school boards, fleet operators, and provinces.
Clear economic, health, and environmental benefits
There are only 1,980 electric school buses nationally, representing just 3.8 per cent of the total Canadian school bus fleet. Electric school bus adoption is a strategic opportunity to reinforce Canada’s industrial autonomy by anchoring domestic manufacturing and scaling homegrown technologies.
In Quebec, full fleet electrification could improve the provincial trade balance by $50–100 million annually. In Ontario, electrifying 65 per cent of the fleet by 2030 could generate over 10,800 jobs and $1.5 billion in gross domestic product, with additional gains from charging infrastructure.
Companies like Girardin Blue Bird, Lion Electric, and Thomas Built Buses manufacture parts of their electric school buses in Canada, while many of the diesel bus manufacturers currently serving the Canadian market are based in the United States. A recent announcement from New Flyer unveiled a new facility in Winnipeg set to manufacture Canadian-built electric transit buses: investing in domestic manufacturing can support Canada’s economic sovereignty.
Furthermore, traffic-related air pollution is linked to approximately 1,200 premature deaths annually in Canada. Diesel school buses in particular have been linked to asthma-related symptoms, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers.
The transition to electric school buses also reduces costs associated with health care delivery. Nationwide, an estimated $50 million would be saved annually as a result of electrifying school buses.
Replacing diesel busses with electric also substantially cuts fossil fuel emissions. Switching just one diesel bus with electric is equivalent to taking five fossil fuel-powered cars off the road. With roughly 52,000 school buses in school buses in operation across Canada, full fleet electrification could eliminate more than 1 million tonnes of fossil fuel emissions annually.
Funding gaps
Cost is seen by some as a significant barrier to the electrification of school bus fleets in Canada.
“We cannot simply hope that the school bus fleet will electrify by magic. That a new electric model costs 2.6 times as much as a diesel model is an undeniable reality, but so is political inertia,” explains Henri Chevalier, lead author of the report and Sustainable Mobility Advisor at Équiterre. “This report card shows that, where governments decide to act with clear goals, electric buses hit the roads. Now more than ever, we need clear financial commitments from the federal government.”
Until 2025, most provinces could rely on the Federal Zero-Emission Transit Fund (ZETF) to finance the purchase of electric school buses. That said, ZETF did not have a stream dedicated exclusively to electric school buses and only a small portion of the ZETF was invested in electric school buses.
Future federal investment in electric school buses is in limbo. Everyone is waiting in uncertainty to learn how much – if any – of the previously announced CPTF will be dedicated to electric school buses. This lack of clarity, along with a history of insufficient funding, undermines and delays transition planning.
Media contact:
Leif Einarson, Communications Manager, Green Communities Canada
leinarson@greencommunitiescanada.org ; 705-745-7479 extension 1017
About the Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance
The Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance (CESBA) is led by Green Communities Canada and was developed in partnership with Équiterre. CESBA is a national coalition
working to accelerate the transition to electric school buses across Canada by 2040. Since 2022, CESBA has united diverse stakeholders to push for policies that support clean and equitable school transportation. Visit Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance - Green Communities Canada for information.
