Province, feds praise New Flyer expansion

WINNIPEG — New Flyer Industries cut the ribbon on its new bus manufacturing facility Tuesday, which is set to build buses from start to finish for Canadian distribution for the first time in more than a decade.

The new facility was celebrated by federal, provincial and municipal leadership Tuesday morning. The last time a bus was assembled entirely in Canada was 15 years ago, said former NFI president and CEO Paul Soubry, now an adviser for the company.

“This expansion means really good jobs, advanced manufacturing skills, supply-chain investment and long-term economic impact right here in Manitoba that reinforces what we use now,” he said.

Soubry said the manufacturing facility takes up 150,000 square feet, with the rest of the 600,000-square-foot facility on Winnipeg’s Kernaghan Avenue devoted to other New Flyer operations.

Before this facility, New Flyer would build steel shells of buses, then ship them to the U.S. for completion. Now, buses being sold in Canada are completed in-house.

While the City of Brandon purchased four new buses from New Flyer earlier this year, Mayor Jeff Fawcett told the Sun that the city doesn’t “expect any immediate impact” because of the new facility.

He also said he doesn’t know how the facility will change the way the city buys transit buses in the future.

The four buses and a related piece of equipment came in at a cost of just under $4.5 million.

Fawcett said New Flyer, which is a “really great Manitoba company,” has a longstanding partnership with Brandon.

“It’s good to see continued development for them,” he said. “I think there’s lots of opportunity that they’re taking full advantage of, and the province and the federal government obviously see that as well by contributing to it.”

Last year, after U.S. President Donald Trump took office, Fawcett said there were some concerns for the city on being able to acquire new buses, as they were built on both sides of the border while Trump placed tariffs on some Canadian goods.

On Tuesday, he said that never ended up becoming an issue for the city, but it was a good reason to strengthen Canada’s supply chain. With the new manufacturing plant, there is more certainty that it will continue not to be a problem.

“This is good, it’s good for Manitoba,” Fawcett said.

Fawcett said there isn’t an estimated timeline for when the buses will be delivered to Brandon, but added that it “usually they take like a good 12 months.”

Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, in Winnipeg for Tuesday’s event, called the facility an example of what can be done elsewhere in Canada in the face of geopolitical instability.

“We know that uncertainty and a lot of unpredictability and definitely a lot of turbulence will continue, but we know also that we can take care of our own … we can’t control what is going on over the border or in the Middle East, but we can control what we’re doing here in the country,” she said.

The project was announced in 2024 and received funding from the provincial and federal governments. The province said Tuesday the facility will create 250 direct jobs. NFI’s global headquarters, based in Winnipeg, employs 3,000 Manitobans.

The majority of the supply chain of parts that are used to build the buses are U.S.-based, and the U.S. requires 70 per cent of the materials in the buses it purchases to be from its country as per the Buy America Act.

Now that buses are being completed in Canada, parts that can be sourced from Canada will be, Soubry said.

About 20 bus shells are being built weekly, with 15 being shipped to U.S. customers, and five being completed at the facility for Canadian customers.

New Flyer has built buses for every province but Quebec.

Premier Wab Kinew echoed Joly’s statement, calling the facility a Manitoba-made answer to a future with an “openly protectionist American political environment.”

“When we first started talking about it in 2024, it wasn’t clear who the American president was going to be, but it was clear that whoever got elected, Canada was going to have to do more to support our economy, right?” he said.

“And as we look forward to the future, regardless of what happens in future American elections, there’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube.”

New Flyer saw a 52.1 per cent year-over-year increase in its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization during 2025’s third quarter, clocking in at $80.9 million.

The corporation will release its fourth-quarter financial results on March 11.

» Winnipeg Free Press and The Brandon Sun