Transport committee  Right now, the model that was agreed to is that the savings pay back the cost of the buses. Certainly, I don't think anyone views transit as a revenue tool. Transit loses money, but it is a public good. We subsidize transit. The cost savings are real. I have a number per bus per year.

Transport committee  Okay. Thank you.

Transport committee  No, I cannot speak to McKinsey contracts and the start of the bank. I can only speak to how this Infrastructure Bank has helped the city of Brampton.

Transport committee  It would be impossible for us to have the financial capacity to do this on our own, so we reached out to the federal government for suggestions on how we could achieve this. We were referred to the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Our transit department was really excited about this.

Transport committee  I would definitely prefer a grant, but this is an innovative way to fund this transition to electric buses. We started this conversation looking for a grant. It wasn't there, so this was the suggestion, and we were told to look at the Canada Infrastructure Bank, as they're looking at ways to help municipalities with this transformation, so we found a partner.

Transport committee  No. I would say this has been an aspirational goal for the city of Brampton. We have a committee that identifies how we're going to achieve our emissions reduction plan. It's a committee of experts and citizens. This was identified as a key component for our plan. It was aspirational that we find a partner with the federal government.

Transport committee  I think the short answer is that it would have been impossible. There's no way we would have had the lending capacity or borrowing capacity to afford 450 buses, and 450 buses is our entire fleet. We're doing this properly. We're going to have a fully electrified transit fleet. It's ambitious, but that's the only way we're going to hit our emission reduction targets.

Transport committee  I've never had any interaction with McKinsey in terms of Brampton Transit's partnership with the Canada Infrastructure Bank. The only time I've ever met McKinsey was when Alykhan Velshi worked there. He worked for Prime Minister Harper, and then moved on to McKinsey. When I was in the provincial arena, we did some work with Alykhan Velshi.

Transport committee  Thank you. Let me say, first of all, that it's great to be here on a panel of such distinguished guests. The Honourable Lisa Raitt was, I think, one of Canada's finest transport ministers. It's so great to be back before this committee. I'll note that I got a summons to attend this committee.