MusGo Rider, a non-profit transportation service, will receive $130,400 from the province’s Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund. 

The funding will go towards implementing more charging stations for their electric vehicles and adding solar panels to their office building.

Jessie Greenough, executive director of MusGo Rider, says the organization is also in the process of building a heated garage for their vehicles that will have solar panels to heat it as well. 

The service is part of the Rural Transportation Association and offers affordable and accessible rural transportation around HRM. 

“We take people to Halifax a lot for medical appointments for seniors or any people with disabilities,” Greenough says.

The Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund was established in October 2021 as part of the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act. The fund provides $15 million over three years for projects that help reduce the impacts of climate change and reduce Nova Scotia’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

A press release from the Government of Nova Scotia estimates MusGo Rider’s solar panels will reduce the office buildings greenhouse gas emissions by 589 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. 

MusGo Rider had electric vehicles before receiving the funding but Greenough says this funding will help move them in the direction of their goal to be fully electric.

Although the organization uses hybrid vans for transporting multiple customers and accessibility vans for people with wheelchairs or other mobility devices. 

“You can’t get an accessible electric vehicle, there’s no such thing,” Greenough says. 

The service hopes to be fully electric in the next year and a half.

Listen to the story below: