Micro Bird, a Canadian manufacturer of small and mid-sized school and commercial buses, has set up shop in Plattsburgh at a time when cross-border relations remain tense.
In late November 2024, Nova Bus announced it had sold its Plattsburgh plant to Micro Bird, a Quebec-based manufacturer of small school and commuter buses. While Nova Bus continued to operate in parts of the plant until the second quarter of this year to fulfill contracts, Tuesday marked Micro Bird’s official launch in Northern New York.
Governor Kathy Hochul, who came to Plattsburgh for the official opening of Micro Bird, noted that securing the company is an example of the state’s continued efforts to maintain relations with Canadian counterparts.
“I just had a wonderful, wonderful event welcoming a company from Quebec to have their first-ever U.S. manufacturing facility and to show our friends and partners from our neighboring provinces, Quebec and Ontario, that we’re strong allies, that we want them to continue coming here,” Hochul stressed. “There’s been a real hit, hard hit, to our North Country businesses. We’re missing Canadians from coming over and I want to make sure that they know that we appreciate them. No matter what happens out of Washington we’re their friends and they are always welcome here.”
The governor said the transportation manufacturing cluster in the North Country has a roughly $150 million impact on the statewide GDP.
“As we usher in the rebirth of manufacturing you’re innovating the future as well. This is not old school technology,” the Governor noted. “Glad we could kick in a few bucks here, almost $10 million in tax credits and a $2.5 million grant to seal the deal.”
The Canadian company’s move comes as the Canadian-U.S. relationship remains strained, especially amid steep U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.
Micro Bird is a is a joint venture of Blue Bird Corporation, the only US owned and operated manufacturer of school buses in the country, and Canada-based Girardin. Blue Bird President and CEO John Wyskiel said that an existing trade agreement is critical to their success.
“As part of this we have the USMCA. So many of our components fall under the USMCA which is critical and hope to see that continue and flourish as it has. It’s created an automotive industry between the two countries that’s unparalleled. So to me that’s got to continue,” Wyskiel said.
But Micro Bird President and CEO Eric Boule says global tariffs are impacting the Micro Bird facility.
“To manufacture the buses here we have a global supply chain. We are importing components including aluminum components from Canada and other components from abroad. So there is an impact,” Boule said. “Right now we are coping with it. We’re integrating it to the business plan so it’s not, like, a surprise today. But we’re doing everything we can as a business, as a company, to eliminate the impact of any tariff whatsoever to the business and to the end customers.”
Boule noted Micro Bird has been manufacturing buses at the facility for several months.
“Things are going very well. We started production on plan in June. We’re producing right now five vehicles, five buses, a day here at the plant already. So impressive start and we are going to continue to improve and make this plant here a true success,” Boule reported.
Micro Bird plans to eventually produce 15 buses per day and increase employment to 350.
At the end of the grand opening ceremony, North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas presented the governor with a red and white guitar.
“She saw our need and very personally engaged every step of the way from personal calls and outreach to providing every form of state support needed every single time we turned to her,” Douglas said. “So thank you to our economic development rock star and number one team member for making this day possible. We have a special presentation for you Governor.”
Governor Hochul was surprised, “Oh my God. I didn’t know about this but I said this was a very cool event. I was right wasn’t I?”
