The Quebec Ministry of Education is stopping the service of 1,200 lions school buses, citing a possible “defect” that can be the origin of a fire earlier this week.
There were no injured in that fire.
Before the fire, the bus driver managed to evacuate the five children on board.
The electric vehicle manufacturer Lion says he is investigating what happened after the heating system in one of his buses caught fire. Five children and a driver managed to get out of the bus unharmed.
That incident has led to a Transport Canada Research. The concerns about the school bus fleet in Quebec have had a domino effect in other provinces, with at least one elected official who asks for new inspections.
In a joint statement issued on Thursday night, the new Minister of Education of Quebec, Sonia Lebel, and the new transport minister Jonatan Julien said they are asking the school service centers to take “necessary measures” to limit the effects of this service arrested on students.
“Since the safety of the students in Quebec is our absolute priority, we have made the preventive decision to stop 1,200 school buses this Friday, to give time to transport companies to go through the required inspections,” says the joint statement.
“The preventive inspections of vehicles will be carried out all weekend to guarantee the resumption of normal school transport in the shortest of delays.”
In his last statement on Friday morning, Syrus, a consulting firm that speaks on behalf of Lion, recognized the government’s decision and said the company shared inspection procedures with all the affected operators earlier this week.
“We are working in close collaboration with them and transport Canada to confirm the safety of León vehicles and to guarantee the complete and rapid resumption of school transport services,” says the statement.
Chantale Dugas, president of the Fédération des transporturs for busHe said the decision to remove the fleet is a “first experience” for school bus carriers.
She said the Federation was aware of the inspection that took place with Lion and Transport Canada, but did not learn until last night “would go as far” as eliminating buses.
“We ask ourselves, it is an accident. It is important. Security is still a priority for us. But to stop the 1,200 lion buses and get them out of the road, it is a challenge,” Dugas said.
Firefighters say that the fire that crossed a Lion Electric School bus in Montreal on September 9 was linked to the vehicle heating system. The bus operator inspected 200 buses in its fleet and has disabled the defrosting system. But a union that represents Quebec bus drivers is asking all buses to be inspected.
In a statement sent by email sent on Friday, Transport Canada said that to date it is up to three fires and a thermal incident that involves Lionc school buses. Their research on them is ongoing.
He says that extensive fire damage means that he has not been able to determine the root cause of the fires and, therefore, cannot say with certainty that it is due to a defect. Until now, the events of which the agency is aware are the following:
- Ascot Corner, which, on November 26, 2024 (fire).
- Brossard, which., On January 8, 2025 (thermal incident).
- Huntsville, Ontario, on January 13, 2025 (fire).
- Montreal on September 9, 2025 (fire).
The safety concerns of school buses reach other provinces
A First Student spokesman, the Transco parent company, said Friday that diesel buses, not just electric buses, form the lion school bus fleet that was removed in Quebec.
The spokesman said the company operates six Diesel de León buses in Ontario, whose service was also suspended.
“As a precaution, we made the decision to eliminate diesel buses from the service,” said the spokesman.
On the island of Prince Eduardo, the Critics of Liberal Education Carolyn Simpson asked the Provincial Government to immediately begin the inspections of all the lions buses in the provincial school bus fleet, which consists of 107 vehicles.
“Our government must act immediately to ensure that students are sure both in schools and their trip,” Simpson said. “Every day that passes without the necessary inspections being completed, it is another day that we are putting the security of our children at risk.”
Kevin Hodgkinson, General Manager of Transportation at the School Board of the District of Toronto, said the Board was preparing to launch Lion Electric Buses in a couple of weeks on the island of Toronto for the Natural School.
“I think that when our group was investigating problems like this, we discovered that gas/diesel buses are still more likely to set fire and abruptly consume one more bus [than] Electric buses, “Hodgkinson wrote in an email on Friday.
“I know the images of this fire [in Montreal] It seems that there is a problem here, but [we] I would have to wait for the fire research report to really understand what happened. ”
He said that the School Board would continue “to follow the Security Directorate of all products and school bus buses of government regulatory agencies.”
Some classes in canceled regions
The parents in Quebec received emails on Thursday night of the school boards, telling them to make other transport arrangements in the light of the interruption.
Mike Cohen, spokesman for the Montreal English School Board, said 76 bus routes that serve the students of the Board are affected.
“We know that it is very inconvenient for parents and all associates with it, but I think everyone is in the same wavelength,” he said. “They are thinking about student safety.”
Mary Scott said she had to take her granddaughter to school on Friday at the last minute due to the interruption of the service and that the child’s father cannot drive.
“It’s extremely frustrating because I’m not just me, there are single parents out there,” Scott said. “She has a mother and a father who love her a lot, but everyone has their own responsibilities and things they have to reach, just like me.”
Robert Senecal, a father in Montreal, said he was “a little disturbing” to know that a bus caught fire since his children take one to school. However, he said that happy precautions are being taken.
“First security. I think it’s the most important thing for our children to come to school, which is healthy and healthy and we will go from this,” Senecal said.
Some school service centers, including the Service Scolaire des Center and the Center for Scolaire Services de la Beauce -Chemin, He announced that they canceled primary and secondary school classes on Friday.
However, the continuing education classes and the nursery for both school service centers will continue and the staff is expected to function according to their standard schedules.
Other school service centers, such as Center for Scolaire Services de la Région-de-Sherbrooke, Said in social media publications on Friday morning that their schools are open for the day and that classes will be carried out as usual. He also noted that while the bus services were withdrawn, their shared travel service was still available.
Marie-Claude Lavoie, a spokeswoman for Center for Scolaire Services of the CapitalHe said in an email on Friday morning that the “interruption of the indefinite service” of seven buses used in the region will affect some 500 students.
“It is not yet possible to specify how long this situation will last,” said Lavoie. “However, be sure that the safety of our students remains our priority, and we are monitoring the situation very closely.”
