Brockville Council Approves Purchase of Two Commercial Accessible Vans for Para-Transit

Brockville – Brockville City Council has approved the purchase of two accessible vehicles for Brockville Para-Transt when it comes in-house in the new year.

Initially proposed by staff, was one custom mini-van and one custom commercial van. An amendment put forward by Councilor Cameron Wales to purchase two larger commercial vans equipped with lifts instead of the mini-van was approved unanimously, along with the motion to buy those vehicles at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

The change was in response to objections from para-transit users, “we heard from members of the community that they were looking for us to make this change” said Councillor Wales.

The initial proposal was for one Custom Toyota Sienna Hybrid with a side-deploying access ramp, and one Custom Ram 2500 Promaster with a side-deploying access lift. The purchase cost of this proposal was $186,785, to be funded by debenture.

The amended proposal is to purchase two Commercial Promaster vans, one with a side-deploying lift and another with a rear lift, at a total cost of $200,560.

According to Wales the users were concerned about the lack of headroom in the minivan and its use of a ramp instead of a lift.