The Galt Museum was the first city department to use an electric vehicle for commercial use. It purchased an all-electric cargo van for nearly $70,000 using grant money from the federal government.
According to Darrin Martens, CEO of the Galt Museum and Archives, having the van saves several thousand dollars a year in costs that would have gone towards staff milage and wear and tear for personal vehicles.
“This van is going to be used by a number of our different departments within the organization so for example, Fort Whoop Up will be utilizing the van for a lot of programming needs, as well as our community programs will be going out into the schools using this van. We use it for collections retrieval and return and we also use it for our general running around,” he said.
Martens said part of the decision to go electric came from increasing vehicle costs during the pandemic
The van was purchased through the Municipal Climate Change Centre (MCCAC), a partnership of Alberta Municipalities, Rural Municipalities of Alberta and the Government of Alberta, focused on lowering energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
The city has gotten other electric vehicles through the MCCAC since the Galt purchased its van in December last year.
“We have recently acquired an electric sport utility vehicle and an electric utility task vehicle for the waste and environment department,” says Rob Ulrich, general manager of fleet services. “In addition, we are anticipating delivery of our first electric ice resurfacer this fall.”
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