(John Yakabuski photo)
Following a sometimes chaotic couple of days without school bus service in Renfrew County, MPP John Yakabuski described the issue as a “very difficult situation.”
Students across the county returned to class this week while school bus operators and Renfrew County Joint Transportation Consortium are without a contract and at odds. Traffic tie-ups and sometimes long delays led to frustrated families and challenges for educators and school staff. In some cases, parents have had to keep children home from school.
Yakabuski said he and his office have been hearing from constituents and said they have a “great deal” of empathy for families dealing with the issue.
He said he has been in regular contact with the education minister and has been closely following the issue, noting the contractual negotiations between the board and the operators is not something in which the government is directly involved.
He had hoped the two sides would come to an agreement before it affected service.
He said the funding formula is somewhat based on the routes, number of kilometres driven, fuel that is needed to make those routes and the number of students and that it is adjusted every year because of the changing circumstances in any given jurisdiction.
He said his numbers may be a year behind, but Renfrew County’s transportation budget is roughly 18 million and an increase was offered.
Whether the school boards can find additional money within their overall budgets to bolster the contracts is something the board needs to determine, he said.
However, he agreed that it’s not a situation that can be allowed to continue for too long.
While he no longer has children in school he has a number of grandchildren who are and he said he can understand the effects of the situation and the need to resolve it.
Yakabuski said he hoped for families to continue to be patient and for the two sides to resolve the matter.
On Thursday, spokespeople for both the consortium and the school bus operators reported that meetings held on Friday, Aug. 30 and Tuesday, Sept. 3 failed to resolve the service disruption.
(Written by Sherry Haaima)