Ombudsman to probe school bus chaos
With the start of the scholastic year, Dubé mentioned his office kept receiving complaints from children, their parents as well as from care givers in Toronto over no show busses.
“We continue to receive complaints from frustrated families who are experiencing chronic delays or are repeatedly forced to scramble to get children to school when their buses don’t show up,” said Dubé.
The Toronto District School Board as well as the Toronto Catholic District School Board were informed, and will be enquired on whether the oversight of student transportation and the response to delays and disruptions were “adequate.”
Dubé adds, “We will look at what the boards knew about possible transportation problems, how they responded and, communicated with parents, and what can be done to prevent such problems in future.”
On Sept 13, Toronto Student Transportation Group, an organization that looks towards providing transportation for students in both school boards, mentioned “severe bus driver shortage” would continue to lead to school bus shortages and delays.
The organization on its Facebook page addresses the issue saying, “We continue to work with our carriers on a daily basis to look for short and midterm solutions to minimize the impact as a result of the driver shortage.”
Following the chaotic arrangements, last Friday, the Toronto Catholic District School Board has made some progress on solving the issue.
John Yan, spokesperson of Toronto Catholic District School Board announced that they’ve presently matched all students to a bus route, but those routes are heavily modified due to the continued shortage of drivers.
He further adds, “Students may not get picked up at exactly the time they’re expecting, there could still be delays anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes.”
The ombudsman’s office also received 49 complaints about conveyance problems at other school boards. It aims to address them too along with the Toronto-focused probe.
“We have had a few complaints about busing in other areas, and some indicating there is a broader problem with the school transportation procurement process across the province,” explains Dubé.
(Reporting by Debarati Mukherjee)
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