The Fast Lane: Tracking the Energy Revolution 2019

Career: Manufacturing Engineering Technologist

Company: New Flyer

If you rode a bus to work today, there’s a good chance it was made by Winnipeg-based New Flyer. It’s also possible that part of the bus completion was assisted by Kate Parnala.

Kate is a manufacturing engineering technologist with New Flyer working on the production of electrical components that control the operation of some of New Flyer’s buses.

New Flyer, a subsidiary of NFI Group, is the largest bus manufacturer in North America, employing 1,300 people in Canada who manufacture transit buses, including zero-emission battery-electric buses. And because buses—especially electric ones—cut Canada’s carbon pollution by getting people out of their cars, New Flyer is one of the biggest employers in Canada’s clean energy sector.

And while increasing transit use, particularly electric transit, cuts pollution, it also creates more Canadian jobs—like Kate’s. Her working day starts with meetings to ensure operational metrics are achieved daily, and her job involves a lot of problem-solving and continuous improvement.

“Throughout the day, I try to find new ways to solve challenges and develop solutions related to electrical component development,” she says.

When not helping build increasingly clean buses for North American roads, Kate does her best to live a sustainable, zero-waste lifestyle and enjoys charity runs.

“Throughout the day, I try to find new ways to solve challenges and develop solutions related to electrical component development.”

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