TORONTO — Ontario’s ombudsman wants to know more about the problems with a shortage of school bus drivers for the Toronto public and Catholic school boards this week.
Ombudsman Paul Dube asked his staff to see if a systemic investigation is warranted into complaints from parents about buses that arrived hours late – or never showed up at all – while about 1,000 children waited at their stops, or gave up and went home.
Dube says his office “will look into what happened, what plans the school boards had in place, and what was done to inform parents.”
READ MORE: Toronto school boards scramble to get kids to school after bus driver shortage
The two Toronto boards are scrambling by having drivers double and triple up on some routes, as well as using taxis to get kids to and from schools.
Unifor, which represents most Ontario school bus drivers, warned last winter that contracting out their services to the lowest bidders would result in “turmoil, volatility and uncertainty.”
Education Minister Mitzie Hunter insists the province provided adequate funding for student transportation, and says it’s up to school boards to sort out the problems with the companies contracted to provide the bus services.
MORE: View the FULL LIST of delays here.
“Since 2003 we’ve provided a 40 per cent increase in transportation funding for school boards,” Hunter said Friday. “I am very confident in the abilities of the school boards to work with the consortium of bus operators to provide those co-ordinated services, and to ensure the No. 1 priority of getting kids home safely to their families is done.”
The ombudsman’s mandate was expanded last year to include oversight of Ontario school boards.
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