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Schools across Quebec have been forced to cancel bus service after the government pulled all of the roughly 1,200 Lion electric buses in the province off the roads.
The provincial government said it took the precautionary measure after a Lion electric school bus caught fire in Montreal earlier this week. Several children and a driver were inside the bus when it caught fire but no one was injured.
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In a joint statement Thursday evening, Education Minister Sonia LeBel and Transport Minister Jonatan Julien said a “defect” may have caused Tuesday’s fire.
“The preventive vehicle inspection operation will take place all weekend to allow normal school transportation to resume as quickly as possible,” they said. “If adjustments to the vehicles are necessary, alternatives will be offered to parents for transporting their children to school next week.”
Lion said it is working with school bus operators and Transport Canada to confirm the safety of its buses and restore bus service.
A spokesperson for the Montreal fire department said the fire was unrelated to the bus’s battery, and the department is not conducting any further investigation.
This is not the first time a Lion bus has gone up in flames. Last November, a bus caught fire in Ascot Corner, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships region. A second bus caught fire in Huntsville, Ont., in January. Nobody was injured in either case, and the batteries were not involved.
In response to the government’s decision, some school service centres chose to cancel bus routes on Friday, while others cancelled the school day entirely.
The Centre de services scolaire de Montréal warned that school bus transportation would be “disrupted for an indefinite period,” and asked parents to find alternative solutions if necessary. The English Montreal School Board had to cancel more than 70 routes usually served by Lion buses, while the Centre de services scolaire des Grandes-Seigneuries on Montreal’s South Shore cancelled more than 50 routes.
Meanwhile, at least two school service centres in central Quebec cancelled classes outright due to the bus service interruption.
Lion has had major financial problems in recent months. After seeking protection from its creditors in December, the struggling manufacturer was acquired by a group of Quebec investors in May with a plan to focus exclusively on electric school buses assembled and sold in the province.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2025.
— With files from Maura Forrest
