Climate Plan
The City of Saskatoon is looking at a leased fancy electric bus over here for $535,000 for one year, and another $100,000 for each of the next two years to just study electric vehicles. Yes, the Federal Government will kick in $234,300 but out of the total $735,000 overall, the federal contribution is not worth the cost the taxpayers have for this. Any information gained by this vehicle trial could be garnered from simple and direct requests from other jurisdictions in Canada that already use or track these vehicles in similar climatic zones, including from our very own SRC.
We should create an inventory of large commercial buildings with suitable roof aspects and construction, as well as useful power connections to the grid, to prepare for a secondary industry of solar energy collection. Our reliance on carbon based fuels is not a good long-term strategy and while solar potential is somewhat limited, with a simple but steady plan, we could start to slowly amass real significant power generation numbers over time. Also, while many small businesses may not have the ability to generate their own renewable energy, this secondary industry could allow large commercial building owners to rent solar production space or wattage to these businesses even if they were not a direct tenant of the building.
A real climate action plan can be made simpler and more incremental. Take $500,700 (total $735,000 minus federal money) and instead of leasing one large battery-operated bus, we use that to replace City inspection departments’ own gas fuelled vehicles at the end of their useful life. Spend only $350,000 of this total budget and use that to purchase 5 to 6 new replacement vehicles including the training and facility upgrades required. Then totally save the remainder of these funds. All day long, these people darting from one building and site to another would use electricity only. Then they would recharge in the evening when our power grid has less demand. We would start small with our own City maintenance personnel becoming familiar with these vehicles in a safer manner, not the severe arc flash situation an electric bus with tons of batteries would present on day one! Remember that these electric buses are nothing like the electric buses we had decades ago which become inert once disconnected from the power grid. This leased bus is always sitting on a massive power cell that can easily kill anyone close by if not suitably trained and clothed in a specifically purpose-built maintenance facility.
