A Winnipeg-based bus manufacturer is expanding production in the Manitoba capital to make electric buses in Canada, from start to finish, with the help of $38 million in new funding from the federal and provincial governments.
The funding will allow New Flyer, a subsidiary of multinational corporation NFI Group, to fully manufacture buses in Winnipeg, president and CEO Paul Soubry said Friday.
The company has a multi-billion-dollar backlog of orders for buses at a time when its has less competition in the marketplace, Soubry said, noting five of its competitors disappeared when demand for bus cratered during the pandemic.
NFI survived with the help of $110 million worth of federal and provincial loans, of which $25 million have been paid back, along with workforce reductions of approximately 2,500 positions, all but about 500 of which have been hired back, he said.
This new expansion in Winnipeg facility, which will cost between $70 and $80 million, will allow the company to build four to six buses a week in Canada by the time it’s fully complete in 2027.
is aided by a new $15 million federal loan, a $10-million provoncial capital contribution and a $13.4 million provincial interest waiver on the existing $50 million provincial loan, Soubry said.
“The reason we needed and asked for government support from the feds and the province is we’ve just gone through hell financially. We’ve got a very leveraged balance sheet,” he said at a news conference.
“So if we were gonna try and do this all on our own, we’d have to wait a couple of years and and do we miss the window.”
Right now, the company builds bus shells in Winnipeg then completes the buses at its Alabama facility. The company will leasea new space where it will complete and commission of transit buses, including the installation of battery electric chargers and hydrogen fuelling, said NFI executive Jennifer McNeill.
While conventional buses still make up the bulk of the company’s production, that will change, Soubry said.
“We create platforms or vehicles that we can have different propulsion systems in, but we’ll also build them on the same production lines. So that as the world changes as the product changes, as the propulsions change we’ll adapt,” he said.
The expansion will create about 250 more jobs in Winnipeg, Soubry said.
Premier Wab Kinew praised the expansion.
“This is about putting a made-in-Canada stamp on the buses that bring people to work in Winnipeg, in Toronto, in Canadian cities that we love so much,” Kinew said.