The Municipality of Jasper will likely cancel the current procurement process for three electric buses and reissue a new procurement process in mid-2025.
CAO Bill Given told council during its committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 12) that the wildfire recovery has put significant strain on administrative resources and that only one proposal had been received since the request for proposal (RFP) closed.
“Under normal circumstances, prior to bringing forward a recommendation to award to a single bidder, administration would want to make sure we really did our due diligence,” Given said. “And as you can appreciate, that due diligence takes up a fair amount of administrative capacity and time, which we just didn’t have.”
With the help of a $5-million federal grant, the municipality has been pursuing the procurement of electric buses and moving from contracted buses to ownership. In June, council awarded a $3.2-million contract for a transit fleet facility and authorized administration to issue an RFP for three battery-electric buses
The initial RFP was issued on July 11 with a closing date of Aug. 16. The budgeted amount for the purchase is $2.25 million with the federal grant covering $1.8 million.
The procurement has faced public pushback, with a petition to stop it receiving over 600 signatures.
On July 22, the Jasper townsite was evacuated due to wildfire and residents were not allowed to return until Aug. 16, the same day as the RFP closed.
According to administration, the federal government has agreed to extend the project deadline due to Jasper’s unique circumstances.
Given noted delaying the procurement would also give administration time to explore participation in a joint procurement initiative underway through the Canadian Urban Transit Association.
In the meantime, transit will continue to use contracted buses under the existing three-year service arrangement.
Coun. Rico Damota floated the idea of cancelling the RFP altogether.
“I have not met a single person in the community that’s approached me that’s in favour of this transit movement,” he said. “Even if there were one or two, for the most part, it’s just not being well received and it’s not being embraced, and people keep telling me to move away from it.”
He later supported the idea of issuing a revised RFP next year that would be for zero-emission vehicles, rather than just electric buses.
Coun. Scott Wilson was in favour of taking “our foot off the accelerator,” but since the municipality was already building a transit fleet facility with this funding, it would be “irresponsible” to not go forward with the procurement.
Coun. Helen Kelleher-Empey advocated for putting out a plebiscite, given how contentious the issue had become.
Despite transit not running from July 22 to Sept. 17, its first year of operation exceeded ridership projections with a total of 41,850 trips, surpassing the 34,000 trips forecasted in the municipality’s transit strategy.
Citing these statistics, Coun. Wendy Hall asserted public transit was needed in the community, and utilizing this grant was “a low-risk way” for the municipality to get into owning its fleet and facility.
Hall also asked administration what would happen if they decided not to go forward with the procurement at all.
Given replied they likely wouldn’t be able to get the grant funding and would be fully on the hook for the cost of the transit fleet facility.
Committee recommended that council cancel the procurement process and reissue the RFP in mid-2025.
