September 12,2025
RED FM News Desk
Quebec’s Education Ministry is suspending the operation of 1,200 LION school buses due to a potential “defect” that may have caused a fire earlier this week.
No one was injured in the incident, and the bus driver successfully evacuated the five children on board before the fire. Transport Canada has launched an investigation, and concerns about the safety of Quebec’s school bus fleet have prompted calls for inspections in other provinces as well.
In a joint statement Thursday night, Quebec’s new Education Minister Sonia Lebel and Transport Minister Jonatan Julien urged school service centres to take “necessary measures” to minimize the impact on students. The statement explained that the preventive suspension, effective Friday, allows transportation companies time to complete required inspections:
“The security of students in Quebec is our absolute priority. Preventative inspections will continue over the weekend to ensure school transportation resumes as quickly as possible.”
A spokesperson for First Student, Transco’s parent company, confirmed that the LION fleet in Quebec includes diesel buses in addition to electric ones. Ontario’s six LION diesel buses have also been temporarily withdrawn. In Prince Edward Island, Liberal education critic Carolyn Simpson called for immediate inspections of all 107 LION buses in the provincial fleet.
Parents in Quebec were notified late Thursday by school boards to make alternate transportation arrangements. Mike Cohen, spokesperson for the English Montreal School Board, said 76 bus routes serving the board’s students are affected.
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