SAULT STE. MARIE -- A Sault Ste. Marie city councillor has an eye on the future for its fleet of cars.
Matt Shoemaker is asking staff to find the total cost of making the switch from gas to electric in an effort to reduce corporate greenhouse gas emissions.
“I wanted to see if we can save money on gas as well,” said Shoemaker. “We spend roughly two and a half million dollars a year on gasoline.”
According to the city’s greenhouse gas inventory, transportation accounts for 56% of the city’s corporate emissions.
One of the report’s several recommendations includes a to switch of all city-owned vehicles to electric power.
“We would start with the low hanging fruit, like the vehicles city inspectors use every day,” said Shoemaker.
“To address our busses and snow plows, I don’t think we’re quite there yet, in terms of it making cost sense, but I think we can do what we can at this point to electrify our fleet.”
But Clean North, a Sault environmental group, feels the motion doesn’t move the needle enough.
“We're going to get a lot of small step solutions proposed, what we need right now is some major rethinking,” said Peter McLarty.
McLarty says he’s more concerned with the city’s transportation ridership numbers, before the city would consider buying electric buses.
“There’s a lot of infrastructure that’s required first and we must get that ridership up to a reasonable level,” McLarty said.
McLarty also wants to see a fee to park at city hall.
“That could encourage staff to carpool or use our buses.”
Despite believing more needs to be done, McLarty says he appreciates Shoemakers effort at city hall.
Meanwhile, Shoemaker says vehicles would likely be replaced at the end of their lifecycle, if the price is right.
