The bus service providing transportation for close to 30,000 Hamilton students going back to school reported several delays on Wednesday.
Hamilton Wentworth Student Transportation Services (HWSTS) revealed 44 delays as of 8 a.m. on Sept. 8, with up to five routes giving a lift for students behind by as much as 60 minutes.
Those routes – with delays between 45 and 60 minutes – include Ancaster High, Bishop Tonnos, Guardian Angels Catholic Elementary, Gordon Price and Sherwood Secondary.
The delays come amid the province facing a driver shortage that continues to plague several school districts across Ontario.
School Bus Ontario says it’s been calling on the provincial government to fix a “flawed” busing contract bid system that’s created a shortfall of hundreds of drivers for close to 10 years.
“It’s not like we haven’t warned the school boards. It’s not like we haven’t warned the province to change this system,” Nancy Daigneault, executive director of School Bus Ontario, told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton on Tuesday.
“We’ve come up with alternative ideas on how to award these contracts. We feel as though all of our warnings are falling on deaf ears at this point.”
Daigneault says the problem with the contracts is they’re awarded to operators that put in the lowest bids, which suppresses driver pay and in turn results in high turnover rates.
Niagara’s system reported delays of over 30 to 45 minutes in some areas during a return for many students on Tuesday, while Halton Region had more than 20 delays that ranged between 20 and 30 minutes.
A spokesperson for the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) told Global News that as of Wednesday, the HWSTS is short four drivers.
“There is a plan with the operator to clear this shortage with trainees ready to go. This is in progress,” said Shawn McKillop.
Hamilton’s public school boards changed bell times last year to compensate for the predicted shortages.
Changes were made at 37 public and 33 Catholic schools with daily start times at HWDSB elementary schools between 8:10 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and dismissals between 2:30 p.m. and 3:50 p.m.
Secondary schools are starting between 8 a.m and 9:30 a.m. and dismiss between 2:30 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.
The decision came following a 2019 study that suggested school start times as late as 9:30 a.m. and dismissals as early as 2:30 p.m. to accommodate the operation of up to 40 fewer school buses — an issue that impacted the efficiency of 25 to 35 routes for three years, according to the school boards.
The Ford government has taken some action on the issue implementing a $40 million school bus driver retention pilot program for the 2021-2022 school year. The province says funding for student transportation is at “an all time high” at just over a $1 billion.
A spokesperson for the ministry of education acknowledged “the driver supply issue” but said it varies across the province and that not all areas are experiencing issues.
“We increased investment in student transportation to the highest level in Ontario history, because we are firmly committed to getting students safely to and from school,” Caitlin Clark
Director of Media Relations told Global News.