logo
School bus converted to electric ready to ride

School bus converted to electric ready to ride

Red River College Polytech unveiled Manitoba's first low-carbon school bus converted from diesel power to electric on Tuesday.
The conversion kit — the result of a collaborative project involving RRC Polytech's vehicle technology and energy centre, Noble Northern and Seven Oaks School Division — was funded by the province and the Canadian Shield Foundation. The project began in August 2023, when Seven Oaks provided a bus for conversion.
RRC Polytech said in a news release that retrofitting an already-owned diesel bus is more than $100,000 cheaper than buying a new Type C electric school bus, even when including labour costs.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
A view under the hood of Manitoba's first low-carbon school bus converted from diesel to electric power.
'The benefits of converting just one bus also include saving up to $11,000 in fuel costs and reducing 21.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions per school year,' the release said.
Wednesdays
A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future.
Other advantages include lower maintenance costs and less air and noise pollution.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Manitoba ‘particularly vulnerable' to tariff-fuelled core building materials price hikes: CMHC
Manitoba ‘particularly vulnerable' to tariff-fuelled core building materials price hikes: CMHC

Winnipeg Free Press

time2 days ago

  • Winnipeg Free Press

Manitoba ‘particularly vulnerable' to tariff-fuelled core building materials price hikes: CMHC

Due to a reliance on imports, tariffs on core building materials could hit Manitoba harder than other provinces. A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. report in February flagged Manitoba and Saskatchewan as facing the highest potential cost increases because of a 'heavy' reliance on imported U.S. steel, aluminum and concrete. The market insights report was assembled as Canadians braced for sweeping 25 per cent tariffs. It was shared with the Free Press recently via a freedom of information request. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES A Winnipeg Construction Association memo notes a 10.7 per cent drop in permit numbers during the first three months of 2025. At the time, the CMHC projected Manitoba could see a 3.7 per cent price increase on core building materials: steel, aluminum, concrete and softwood. 'Regions like Manitoba and Saskatchewan are particularly vulnerable due to limited local production capacity,' the report reads. Four months later, blanket 25 per cent tariffs haven't appeared. However, a levy applies to all steel and aluminum imports to the U.S.; Canada reciprocated with a swath of 25 per cent tariffs on inbound steel and aluminum. U.S. President Donald Trump doubled his tariff on the two core building materials Wednesday. 'This report certainly shows that the construction industry in Manitoba has exposure to the evolving tariff situation,' said Darryl Harrison, Winnipeg Construction Association director of stakeholder engagement. Industry members have been altering their supply chains to minimize costs. It includes sourcing more Canadian steel and ensuring contracts don't specify American products, Harrison said. Manitoba imported $32.9 million worth of U.S. iron and steel more than it exported in 2023, per Statistics Canada data. It saw a similar deficit — but $51.9 million — for aluminum. Despite the economic uncertainty, Manitoba contractors have more bidding opportunities now than a year ago, Harrison said. The Winnipeg Construction Association has an online tender platform. The projects awarded during the first three months of 2025, however, was a noticeable drop from the same period in 2024. 'The tariffs certainly would have an impact,' Harrison said. U.S. levies — and Canada's reciprocal fees — came online in March, after months of threats and uncertainty. A Winnipeg Construction Association memo notes a 10.7 per cent drop in permit numbers during the first three months of 2025. Then, $988 million worth of permits were awarded; the number was $1.1 billion a year earlier. Institutional permit numbers plunged 53 per cent; industrial followed with a 36 per cent decline. Commercial and residential permits bucked the trend with year-over-year increases. 'My feeling is that people are more comfortable (now) in trying to find ways to manage the uncertainty of tariffs,' Harrison said. But the recent doubling of American steel and aluminum import tariffs — and possible reactive tariffs from Canada — could have an impact, he added. Supply-Build Canada hasn't clocked big differentials in tariff exposure across the country, said president Liz Kovach. Some U.S. suppliers have eaten tariff costs. 'I don't know how long they're going to be able to do that,' Kovach said. '(And) now that the tariffs have doubled, it's going to take a little while to see what that impact will be on the industry.' Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Canadian construction firms also face a headwind from an ongoing softwood lumber dispute with the U.S., Kovach added. She's bracing for a doubling of duties on such exports this year. Manitoba exported more softwood to the U.S. than it imported in 2023, at a net export of $244 million. Freight costs — and the distance required to get material — seems to be a large factor in price fluctuations, Kovach said. The CMHC hasn't analyzed whether core building material prices have increased since February, but stakeholders say rising prices are affecting construction, spokesman Leonard Catling wrote in a statement. 'We continue to closely monitor housing market activity.' Gabrielle PichéReporter Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle. Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Manitoba cabinet minister harassed college employee in past job, external investigation concluded
Manitoba cabinet minister harassed college employee in past job, external investigation concluded

CBC

time3 days ago

  • CBC

Manitoba cabinet minister harassed college employee in past job, external investigation concluded

Recently appointed federal cabinet minister Rebecca Chartrand harassed a former employee at Winnipeg's Red River College Polytechnic over a period of several months in 2019, according to an external investigation commissioned by the college and conducted by a Winnipeg law firm. Chartrand, elected in April as the Liberal member of Parliament for the northern Manitoba riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, was appointed by Prime Minister Mark Carney in May as the minister of northern and Arctic affairs and the minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency. According to documentation provided to CBC News in April — but first reported this week by Canadaland — Chartrand was the subject of a harassment investigation during the final months of her two-year stint as executive director of Indigenous strategy for RRC Polytech, a Winnipeg post-secondary institution with annual enrolment of approximately 21,000 students. In a complaint filed with RRC Polytech under its discrimination and harassment policy in September 2019, a former college employee claimed she was "targeted, undermined, bullied and harassed" by Chartrand over a period of eight months. The harassment took the form of threatening the employee's position, undermining her work and her management of other staff, interfering with her career, negatively impacting her reputation, increasing her workload and imposing unreasonable deadlines, according to the complaint. In a letter dated Dec. 19, 2019, RRC Polytech human resources director Curtis Craven informed the former employee that investigators with the Winnipeg law firm Rachlis Neville LLP substantiated the harassment complaint. The law firm found Chartrand's conduct "amounted to personal harassment in that over a period of time, the manner in which she engaged with you and the approach used to assign work and manage your performance constituted conduct which was severe," Craven said in the letter. "Such conduct could reasonably cause an individual to be humiliated or intimidated and was repeated, and had a lasting, harmful effect on you," he wrote. However, "given that Ms. Chartrand is no longer with the college, the college will not be taking any further corrective actions arising from this investigation," Craven's letter said. Chartrand was employed by RRC Polytech from June 2017 until December 2019, when she resigned, college spokesperson Emily Doer said in a statement. Chartrand was not available to speak about her time at the college, spokesperson Kyle Allen said this week. "Minister Chartrand is committed to fostering a healthy work environment for all persons in the workplace, characterized by collegiality and mutual respect," Allen said in a statement. RRC Polytech also declined to address Chartrand's time at the post-secondary institution. "In keeping with privacy legislation and college policy, we do not discuss personnel matters regarding current or former employees," Doer said in a statement. 'Months of psychological warfare': former employee The former college employee who filed the harassment complaint left RRC Polytech in 2020. In an interview, she said she had no intention of disclosing the investigation until Chartrand was nominated by the Liberal Party as its candidate for Churchill-Keewatinook Aski. The employee, whom CBC News is not identifying out of concerns about the potential impact on her employment, said she first attempted to contact Liberal Party officials about her experience but was unsuccessful. "I really did just want to forget about this and move on," said the former employee, who describes herself as a Liberal supporter. "I was voting for Mark Carney. I did not want what happened to me to happen to anybody in Ottawa. I didn't want Mark Carney to be hurt by any further actions, whether something of this nature ever happened again." Liberal Party spokesperson Jenna Ghassabeh said the party does not comment on the specifics of the candidate vetting process. "Canadians expect all political parties to do their due diligence on all prospective candidates, and the Liberal Party of Canada has a rigorous process to appropriately conduct such reviews," Ghassabeh said in a statement. The former RRC Polytech employee said she ultimately contacted several media outlets about her experience after Chartrand made social media comments relating to her own time at the college. The former employee said she came to know Chartrand in 2015, when the now-MP made an earlier run for office in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski. She came in second in that race to the NDP's Niki Ashton, who Chartrand then defeated in April's federal election. The former employee said she left another job to work under Chartrand at the college and had a good working relationship until 2019, when a nine-page survey was prepared to determine the needs of incoming students in the Indigenous studies program. The former employee said the survey was amended to include questions about drug and alcohol use, against the recommendations of an external consultant. The college did not disclose that the responses to these questions might determine whether respondents would receive financial assistance, the former employee said. The survey was withdrawn following complaints from prospective students and prompted an apology from Chartrand, according to a Global News story in 2019. The former employee said after she advised against including the questions in the survey, what had been a positive working relationship with Chartrand deteriorated into harassment. "It was like months of psychological warfare," the former employee said. "I've just tried to move on from all of my own personal grief and trauma around this because it has impacted me personally and professionally, and I wanted to just forget about it and move on. But it hasn't gone away." In a Facebook post on election night, a former resident of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski named Kyle Ross drew attention to the RRC Polytech survey issued during Chartrand's time at the college. In a since-deleted post of her own, Chartrand accused Ross of engaging in "lateral violence" and sought information about his whereabouts. "If anyone has any information on where this individual works or resides, please reach out publicly," she wrote. Chartrand spokesperson Allen said the minister regrets the post. "Regarding the social media post referenced, Minister Chartrand deeply regrets the language and tone she expressed. She unreservedly offers her apologies for the language of the post," Allen said in a statement. Ross said in an interview he would have preferred a direct apology for trying to discern where he lives and works. "I feel like a direct message would be nice," he said.

Tories relent, agree to fast-track trade bill supported by biz community
Tories relent, agree to fast-track trade bill supported by biz community

Winnipeg Free Press

time5 days ago

  • Winnipeg Free Press

Tories relent, agree to fast-track trade bill supported by biz community

Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives agreed to fast-track the government's interprovincial trade bill Monday so it could become law before the legislature rises for the summer. Bill 47 The Fair Trade in Canada (Internal Trade Mutual Recognition) Act and Amendments to The Commemoration of Days, Weeks and Months Act (Buy Manitoba, Buy Canadian Day) passed early in the evening as members prepared to stay late to pass 36 bills before the break. The NDP government introduced the bill May 22, well beyond the deadline for ensuring its passage before the recess. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Last week, the PCs offered to speed up the process — to make sure the bill passed — if the NDP agreed to pass four Tory bills. In the end, the PCs agreed to pass the government bill without their bills being passed in return. 'There's always negotiations and there's always something that's given to be able to support Bill 47, and that work took place over the weekend,' government house leader Nahanni Fontaine told reporters. She wasn't prepared to say what the government gave up to ensure the free trade bill became law. 'What I can confirm is I didn't give any bill in exchange,' she said. Premier Wab Kinew wanted the province's fair trade bill passed before he attended Monday's first ministers meeting in Saskatoon with Prime Minister Mark Carney. Manitoba business leaders had supported the NDP government's bill. Since U.S. President Donald Trump waged a trade war with Canada, Carney has said he wants to see a free trade deal among provinces in time for Canada Day. Kinew threatened to extend the legislature sitting for three weeks if the PCs didn't fast-track his government's fair trade bill. The Tories relented, but called it 'weak legislation.' MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES 'This doesn't support labour mobility,' PC leader Obby Khan told reporters Monday. The legislation removes trade barriers for goods and services between Manitoba and reciprocating jurisdictions in Canada that have similar mutual recognition rules. The goods and services of a reciprocating jurisdiction's standards and approvals would be recognized as meeting the comparable standards and approvals in Manitoba. The mutual recognition rules do not apply to goods and services that are provided by Crown corporations, however. 'The NDP put a watered-down bill forward,' Khan said. 'Weak legislation is better than no legislation — and at least this will give the premier something to move forward with to make Manitoba better.' Fontaine said 36 government bills were expected to receive Royal Assent Monday night before MLAs left the chamber until the session resumes Oct. 1. 'I'm really proud of the of agenda that we've brought forward.' She highlighted a handful of bills, including one that imposes additional consequences when an impaired driving offence involves bodily injury or death and another that orders landlords to cover the cost of displaced tenants when a building is deemed unsafe, 'which we saw at Birchwood Terrace.' Tenants of the building on Portage Avenue were displaced for seven months after its structural stability was questioned. She hailed 'Nello's law,' named in honour of the late education minister Nello Altomare, that amends the Public School Act to ensure every public school provides a nutritious meal program to students. Among the dozens of other bills headed to final approval was one to add gender expression to the human rights code — a move that would include protections for people to be called by their preferred pronouns. The bill, similar to laws in most other provinces, met with a mixture of praise and opposition at public hearings. Another bill would change highway traffic laws to impose new minimum distances for drivers to maintain when coming across snowplows and emergency vehicles. A change to the Public Health Act would eliminate the option of putting people with communicable diseases in jail, and divert them to a hospital or other health facility instead. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES The government did not get all of its legislative agenda passed. A bill to enact tax changes announced in the spring budget, including a change to personal income taxes that will no longer raise tax brackets in line with inflation, will not pass until after the fall. The Tories used their right under house rules to hold back five bills till the fall. One bill includes several proposed changes to observances at schools. O Canada would have to be sung daily, and a little-used provision that required God Save the King to be played would be eliminated. The Tories said the bill would remove the royal anthem as an optional patriotic observance. Another bill held back until fall would lower political donation limits and require political parties to have a code of conduct for election advertising. A third bill would forbid liquor licences in urban convenience stores and gas stations — a move the Tories say will affect small businesses and customer choice in the few locations where such licences have been issued. -With files from the Canadian Press and Maggie Macintosh Carol SandersLegislature reporter Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol. Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store