Time to get school bus funding right

The province should pass savings on to drivers, too

On a cold grey morning in January 2011, more than 100 school bus drivers who had worked diligently to deliver safe student transportation faithfully waited for the news in the Guelph Legion Hall. Upon learning that the company’s Fergus branch would be closing, many were overcome with tears and anger. The company had lost 100 bus routes under a bidding process known as an RFP, or Request for Proposal. For years, these drivers had driven school buses for Elliott Coach Lines — some for decades. A number of drivers retired or left the industry when the company lost the contract.

Thus began a trend toward the school bus driver shortages that persist through much of the province, leaving children stranded and parents exasperated. The woes continue today. In 2015, a driver employed by us in York Region left for a successor company after an RFP loss. She reported that the new company was paying just over $40 per day for “her route” versus the $70 per day she made with us doing the same thing. School board wins, driver loses, children lose. For taxpayers, the jury is still out.

These stories are all too familiar to those firms operating school buses in the province. My own company did an analysis in 2013 that demonstrated how driver turnover doubled even if we were successful in an RFP. The impact of route changes to a successful incumbent scares away drivers who can no longer transport “their kids.”

As taxpayers, Ontarians should be overjoyed with RFPs. They have led to millions of dollars of savings in payments to school bus operators. Yet where has the money gone?

As recently as September 2016, Education Minister Mitzie Hunter defended the ministry’s record on the subject of driver shortages, indicating that transportation funding has increased by 40 per cent since 2003. In the same breath, Hunter trotted out the ministry’s oft cited assertion that transportation procurement is between school boards, their transportation consortia, and bus companies. Industry insiders know better, as whispers of provincial strong-arming and “thou-shalt” RFP process templates abound.

Saving millions on one hand, yet increasing funding by 40 per cent on the other, simply doesn’t square. Taxpayers bear the brunt of the spending increase, while parents (also taxpayers) live with the dislocation that a driver shortage brings. Somewhere in the middle, between the increased funding to school boards, and the reduced payments to bus companies and their drivers, the money is being squandered. On what? Probably not even on transportation. Another guess is that transportation is being used by the four to five overlapping school boards in each local area to compete for enrolment by reducing student walking distances. In essence, a fight for a larger slice of a shrinking pie and a real waste of money! In 2015, when reviewing school transportation, the auditor general either couldn’t find the money, or chose not to try.

Someone better find the money soon. Since oil and commodity price drops have produced a 75-cent dollar, new vehicle prices have increased by more than 30 per cent. As a consequence, rumours abound that recent RFP responses have come with a higher price tag. These are rumours, because the bid prices are not disclosed. What about fuel though? Anyone can see pump prices have declined since oil was at $110 per barrel. The government is already saving that money through rate de-escalation clauses in every significant school bus contract across the province. Taxpayers deserve transparency, they don’t have it now.

If the rumours are true, and bus operators are bidding higher, my vote is that the government finds ways — and funds ways — to ensure that appropriate monetary compensation lands squarely on drivers’ pay cheques. Drivers do more to ensure the safety of our children than anyone else in school transportation. This government passes the buck to school boards and transportation consortia, well aware that the current system rewards low bids.

It’s time they actually passed the bucks to drivers.

Angus McKay worked in school transportation for years. He is now retired and lives in British Columbia.