The city has agreed to boost payments to its bus maintenance contractor by over $500,000 over the next seven years. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

new bus deal

City spending $500,000 more on new bus maintenance

Aug 23, 2019 | 5:00 PM

Prince Albert taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for the unexpectedly high maintenance costs for the city’s new public transit fleet.

City council has agreed to increase the maintenance budget for contractor First Student Canada by more than half a million dollars over the next seven years of their agreement.

The company has faced far bigger costs than they expected since successfully bidding on the city contract which started in 2016. Earlier this year a First Student Canada manager described the new Vicinity buses which arrived in 2018 as “lemons”. He said they had encountered issues with tire replacement, batteries, rear brakes and alternators and said they could not continue if they weren’t given more money for the task. At a public meeting in March some city councillors questioned First Student Canada’s mechanics’ experience with maintaining city bus fleets as well as with the bidding process and suggested their bid may have been too low.

However, Mayor Greg Dionne said after council approved the new financial arrangement this week that there had been some “give and take” and things had been worked out. But he stressed they did not settle for a higher dollar figure the company was initially after.

“What they originally wanted we did not agree to, so we’ve come up with this solution,” Dionne told paNOW. “At the end of the day they [First Student] did make an error, and just because we have a contract doesn’t mean we have to whip them on it.”

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The new deal will see the company secure an annual increase of 2.75 per cent on their hourly rate, instead of the 2.5 per cent initially stipulated. From August they will charge $66.78 per hour for their work. Dionne told council that the company had initially asked for $85 an hour. The new deal will mean an increase of $507,000 in total through 2026.

Dionne agreed that the extra cost facing the city stings but it was crucial to keep the vehicles in good shape.

“I want to make sure our buses are kept up. They are brand new and I want to make sure they’re maintained,” he said

But Dionne was eager to remind the public he eventually wanted the city’s transit system to be run entirely in-house.

“I would like to see us build a bus barn and take over the care of our own buses, and have our own drivers and our own service. Until we can get to the point where we can get provincial and federal funding to assist us, we’ll have to stay with the contract.”

paNOW was unable to make immediate contact the Western Regional management for First Student Bus for comment.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow