Convoys of school buses could be heard honking their horns outside two Quinte-area MPP offices Tuesday morning.
The demonstrations outside Todd Smith’s office in Belleville and Darryl Kramp’s office in Madoc brought out more than 20 independent school bus operators worried about a request for proposal (RFP) process that could potentially put some of them out of business.
A contract between the Tri-Board busing system, which serves the Kingston, Belleville and surrounding rural areas, and its independent school bus operators is set to end in June, and the company will be sending out a request for proposal to procure new contracts.
The association representing the more than 20 Quinte-area operators says the RFP process would favour, at the most, five larger operators that can offer competitive pricing, potentially putting 19 local operators out of business.
The association says calls to Tri-Board to reconsider the RFP process have gone unanswered.
Gord Taylor, chief executive officer of Tri-Board, says that as a public sector organization, it is required by law to look for competitive procurement of new contracts.
“RFPs are a common form of procurement in Ontario and are used by the school boards regularly. Student transportation in the Tri-Board area costs approximately $40 million dollars per year,” Taylor said in a statement.
The bus operators’ association says there are alternatives to RFPs that would allow for more independent operators to continue in the region.
One of those is benchmarking, according to Sherry Barker, with Parkhurst Transportation. She says this process employs an independent third party to assess a baseline price by comparing all the prices from available operators, giving smaller shops a chance to compete.
Barker says they’re asking local MPPs to go back to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, headed by Smith, to make a case for this type of procurement.
“Many of us have a longstanding relationship with the community, those relationships have to count for something,” Barker said.
Barker also noted that this issue isn’t unique to the Quinte region, and that similar protests are in the works for other areas in the province.
Smith went out to meet with some of the operators outside his office Tuesday. In a statement sent to Global News, he said school bus consortia like Tri-Board are indeed required to hold open and competitive procurement processes, but each consortium has the freedom to choose how.
“As we have seen elsewhere in the province, an RFP is not the only avenue available,” Smith said.
“While Tri-Board Transportation has created RFP criteria that is heavily weighted to service, rather than price, I understand these small business operators are concerned about their ability to compete. We continue to have dialogue about the issue,” Smith finished.
Global News has learned there is current legal action in place by some of the school bus operators in the region against Tri-Board. Taylor wouldn’t go into too much detail, but said the plaintiffs were some of the bus operators currently under contract with his company.
“The allegation that the Tri-Board RFP is flawed or illegal is denied and is now before the courts,” Taylor said. He refused to comment further on the matter.
Barker said she could not comment on any of the legal proceedings at this time, but said she could speak on the matter at a later date.
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