Over two million children across Canada return to school each September by bus. A new report from the Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance (CESBA) calls on federal and provincial policymakers to ensure the transition to electric school buses doesn’t leave anyone behind. 

The report, Embedding Equity in Canada’s Transition to Electric School Buses, examines impacts on certain groups, including Indigenous communities and students with disabilities. The report considers impacts throughout the entire lifecycle of electric school buses, including resource extraction, manufacturing, adoption, use, and disposal. 

The timing of the report is crucial. With fewer than 4 per cent of Canada’s 51,000 school buses currently electric, the transition is at a decisive moment. Nearly 70 per cent of those 51,000 buses will be replaced in the next 2-7 years. Now is the time to ensure those buses are replaced with electric counterparts in ways that address rather than reinforce inequities.