Auditor's review causes city to rethink how it will buy electric buses

A report from Ottawa's auditor general has caused the city to change its plans to switch to electric buses: from issuing its own request for proposals (RFP) to partnering with the City of Toronto. 

Last summer the city announced a $1 billion plan to purchase 450 electric buses for OC Transpo's fleet by 2027 that included only buying zero-emission buses from that point on.

Less than a week after the announcement, the city's auditor general Nathalie Gougeon took the unusual step of proactively auditing the procurement rather than waiting until OC Transpo buys the buses. 

Her team filed its first report to the audit committee in February focused on the bus technology. She's now followed that with a second report focused on the procurement process. 

The audit found that while a draft RFP did consider lessons learned from the four-bus pilot project that started in February, there were several ways it could have been improved. 

"As a result of the audit work performed relative to the draft RFP and subsequent inquiry into other avenues by staff, management has decided not to release an RFP," the report said. 

TTC one of several partners considered

She made five recommendations, most of which are rectified at least in part by the switch from the city producing its own RFP to entering into a joint agreement with the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). 

In response to the auditor's recommendations, staff said looking at provincewide procurement agreements was something they were asked to explore in June 2021 — and considering the audit, they decided to pursue this option. 

Staff also reviewed Metrolinx, The Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium and the Association du Transport Urbain du Québec as potential partners before settling on the TTC.  

Toronto plans to award one or two contracts to supply its city with 40-foot electric buses. In the new plan, Ottawa would enter into a separate agreement with the same companies Toronto selects. 

By doing it this way, the city says it gets operation and maintenance benefits as more of the buses in the province will be standardized. 

Gougeon noted in the report that her office has not reviewed this change in approach for its effectiveness.

Report says draft RFP 'lacked clarity' 

Her recommendations for the draft RFP that never went out focused on adding detail, including technical specifics such as required battery range and service requirements for battery degradation. 

"The city's requirements for documentation from proponents were much broader and nonspecific when compared to other municipalities," the report said. 

It said the city was trying to allow proponents to show how they met requirements in the way that made the most sense to how the company operated, however Gougeon worried it would make it hard to evaluate applications. 

The city said by adopting the terms of the TTC RFP into its own, more specifics will now be included, though it said past RFPs were done similarly and resulted in the best value purchase being made. 

Transit staff will do their own cost analysis on the battery systems and maintenance schedule to make sure the city's needs are met and will negotiate with the successful bidder in the joint contract further if necessary. 

Next purchase will be 26 buses 

Council approved a plan for OC Transpo to begin negotiating a loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank and grants from Infrastructure Canada to cover the cost of the buses.

If funding is secured, the plan is for the city to buy 26 buses and charging infrastructure with money from this year's budget to have the buses in service by the end off 2023. 

The number of buses, 26, is down from last year's plan for an initial purchase of 74 buses as a result of the first report from the auditor general.

The eventual goal is to have a zero-emission fleet by 2036. 

Gougeon is set to officially present this report on Monday.