The Government will be looking to invest in greener buses, said Grant Gibbons, Minister of Economic Development.

Responding to questions by the opposition during Friday’s budget debate, Dr Gibbons told the House of Assembly that an RFP is set to go out in the near future for electric, hybrid or LNG-powered buses as the government seeks to improve the ageing fleet.

The comments came after shadow transport minister Lawrence Scott questioned government if it would look at electric buses rather than the typical combustion vehicles, which could be better for Bermuda’s roads and more cost-effective.

“Maybe as a country we would try to set the goal of taking advantage of hybrid and electric public safety vehicles,” Mr Scott said. “We could reduce the overhead, as fuel is one of the biggest expenses of the PTB.” He added that electric/hybrid vehicles have a longer useful life, and that cost savings can be used to retrain and retool employees.

Mr Scott made several other suggestions to improve the island’s bus system, including revising the bus schedule, but Dr Gibbons responded: “It’s much easier to make these suggestions than it is to get them to take effect.”

Dr Gibbons said hopes of introducing a new bus schedule last year were dashed after the proposed revisions were rejected by the Bermuda Industrial Union.

“There has been an effort to revise the bus schedule since 2001, 2002. We thought that we had on the table a new schedule that would be accepted.

“Unfortunately that new schedule was rejected by the union so we are back to square one.”

Dr Gibbons said that four new buses are expected to arrive on the island later this year and Government had budgeted the purchase of another ten vehicles in 2018.

He noted that in addition to the $2.5 million allocated for buses in the 2017/18 budget, money was allocated and saved last year for the same purpose.

Dr Gibbons also revealed that recruitment efforts “have commenced in earnest” to hire 20 additional bus operators.

“Further, internal training is under way to fill three traffic supervisor positions,” he said, adding that these positions are expected “to drastically reduce overtime costs for the operations section”.

He also commented on a recent incident in which a bus carrying schoolchildren burst into flames in Warwick, saying the vehicle was 15 years old.

“We have said that there is a sister bus, which was taken off the road after the incident,” he said.

“Clearly the PTB is very concerned about public safety. I’m sure there will be a very careful look at the safety issues involved.”

Dr Gibbons was also questioned about the island’s ferries, particularly the Government’s use of the Millenium, which is set to conclude this year. While Zane DeSilva and Dennis Lister questioned if it would not have been more efficient for the Government to have bought a new ferry four years ago instead of hiring the Millenium for $1.2 million a year, Dr Gibbons responded that the money simply was not available at the time.

“A new ferry would have cost $8 million,” he said. “The issue is should the government have four years ago bought a new ferry for $8 million.

“When the current government took over the capital funds to buy a new ferry simple were not available. We understood that we needed this transport between St George’s and Dockyard.”

And on the subject of new ferries, he said he believed the Department of Marine and Ports may prioritise the purchase of a new tug, giving the existing vessel’s age and the increasing size of visiting cruise ships.

Another topic broached by the opposition was the cost of revenue guarantees with the airlines that visit the island, with PLP MPs, including Wayne Furbert, suggesting that the guarantees — which can cost the government millions annually — were under-budgeted, giving a falsely rosy appearance.

While Mr Furbert said he knew of one such guarantee that had cost the government more than $3 million, Dr Gibbons said that the guarantee mentioned was made by the former administration.

“It’s important to point out that WestJet had been paid something in the order of $3 million,” he said.

“That goes back to 2012 and what we learnt since then was that it was an open-ended agreement with the former government.

“Now they are capped. With that airline, it is capped at $1 million.”

However, Dr Gibbons accepted that there would likely be supplementals in the area of revenue guarantees as one agreement was signed too recently to be included in the budget.

“The most recent revenue guarantee was only signed a month ago, so it is not in this budget,” he said.