Quinte school bus drivers worry new Tri-Board contract talks may cost them their businesses

More than 20 school bus operators in the Quinte region are sounding the alarm that they could lose their businesses if a request for proposal is sent out by Tri-Board Student Transportation Services.

With a negotiated contract expiring in June, the Tri-Board busing system has served notice that it will open a request for proposals this month.

Sean Payne, co-chair of the Tri-Board School Bus Operator’s Association has sent a request to MPP for the Bay of Quinte Todd Smith to ask Education Minister Stephen Lecce to delay these requests for proposals, which Payne estimates could put the majority of small bus operators in the Quinte region out of business.

According to a local school bus operators association, requests for proposals like the one being put forward by Tri-Board are typically awarded to four operators at most.

“This request for proposal will definitely result in up to 19 small businesses being shut down,” Payne said.

Gord Taylor, chief executive officer of Tri-Board, said that the company is simply following Ontario regulations for the contract talks.

“It is the law, we intend to follow it until the Ontario government says otherwise,” Taylor said.

1:02 No appreciable shortage of school bus drivers in the Kingston region

Payne told Global News he hopes to be able to sit down with Smith and Lecce to explain how the request for proposal process might put local school bus drivers, some of who have been serving their region for decades, out of business.

He said there were other ways — including a benchmark contract — the government could go about the contract talks that would ensure local bus operators can keep driving.

Payne said he hopes both Smith and Lecce will consider their pleas to delay the request for proposal process because “losing more small businesses during a pandemic is not the Conservative way.”