EDMONTON -- Edmonton city council will be debating its e-bike rebate again after one councillor says he received numerous calls from people upset with the program.
"I just think in this context -- in this time -- those rebates, they just don't fit with a time of COVID," Councillor Scott McKeen told CTV News Edmonton.
The city set aside $150,000 for the rebate program over three years. It covers 30 per cent of the cost of a bike up to a maximum of $750.
Six hundred rebates were provided this year and the money ran out within days.
McKeen says the program was approved long before the pandemic but he isn't convinced that the city should have gone ahead with rolling it out.
"People are facing unemployment… their businesses are on the brink of collapse," he said. "It just struck them as a ludicrous way for us to spend tax dollars."
Cyclist Andrew Cowan is in favour of the rebate, which he used to get an e-bike to commute to work.
"I think there's a lot of other places we can look besides picking on e-bikes," cyclist Andrew Cowan said. "The bike rebate was such a small percentage of what they spend every year to get people around town."
The rebate is part of a larger program that includes an electric vehicle charging rebate. McKeen would also like council to debate whether to continue that rebate.
