While some kids are forced to go to school in taxis, boards import school bus drivers from Alberta
Four bus drivers from Alberta have been brought in to deal with the ongoing driver shortage in Toronto to allow time for locals to be recruited and trained.
The four drivers will remain in town for four to six weeks, according to a spokesperson for Stock Transportation, which is part of the consortium of bus companies that covers routes for the city's public and Catholic schools.
Stock has taken on an additional 13 routes to help other companies that are experiencing driver shortages: four of those routes are being covered by the Alberta drivers, and surplus local Stock drivers are covering the remaining nine, according to Molly Hart.
The costs associated with bringing in the additional drivers, including return flights, shared hotel accommodations, meals and wages will be paid for by the consortium, Hart told CBC News.
Hart could not say what the company expects these costs to add up to.
Asked whether more drivers could be brought in from out of town, she said: "We haven't had that discussion."
The company hasn't been asked, but would consider the request, she said.
The out-of-town drivers are part of the efforts to deal with a school-bus driver shortage on about 60 routes that had families scrambling for transportation in the first weeks of school.
Some students in both boards were left waiting hours for buses that were either late or didn't show at all.
Drivers were asked to double or triple up on routes, and taxis have been brought in at some schools to ferry children to and from home.
One mother of two special-needs children, Lainie Magidsohn, told CBC's Here And Now Thursday her nine-year-old son Mattan has been taking cabs for the last few weeks. She said he seems to be coping well, but it's difficult.
"Every day my son has to figure out, 'OK, who's picking me up today?' ... It's not like a bus where you have the same bus driver that you recognize every day. It's a different cab driver every day," Magidsohn said.
"He's doing pretty well ... He's kind of a star," she said with a chuckle. "But I know that it's stressful. Figuring it out every day ... is a challenge."
Magidsohn said she has been told it could be "another couple of weeks" before Mattan's school bus route has a driver on it.
'It's a bad sign that we can't find drivers'
TDSB trustee Marit Stiles, chair of the board's finance and accountability committee, said the committee only learned of the out-of-province drivers at its meeting Wednesday night.
"On one level our preoccupation as trustees is to try to fill the routes, get the kids to school, get the parents to work. So on one level whatever they need to do to make that happen is good for now," Stiles told CBC's Metro Morning on Thursday.
"But I guess it's a bad sign that we can't find drivers and I guess what's becoming pretty clear is that there's a problem probably with retention and probably the precarity of this type of work."
She said the committee has asked for details on what it will cost to have the Alberta drivers help out. The bus companies told her committee last year that they were having trouble recruiting drivers, and extra money was needed. The committee asked the consortium at the Wednesday meeting to report back on what it is doing to recruit and retain drivers.
The committee was told that some drivers quit because they learn in June or over the summer what route they will be driving for the upcoming school year.
"And that comes down to why do people want to be bus drivers?" Stiles said.
"And maybe they can't handle the inconvenience of not being in an area near where they thought or where they can park easily or near where they live. So these are all things we have to consider if we are going to retain good drivers to do this really important job."
Probe underway
Earlier this week, the ongoing shortage compelled Ontario ombudsman Paul Dube to announce that his office has opened an investigation into the issue, focusing on whether the boards' oversight of transportation is adequate and whether their response to the shortage was appropriate.
"Nearly four weeks into the school year, 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," Dube said. "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."
The TDSB and the TCDSB issue a joint statement Monday to say they welcome the ombudsman's investigation.
"As we've said from the beginning, we agree that a thorough review is necessary so that we can ensure it doesn't happen again," the statement said. "That is why we will be cooperating fully in addition to conducting our own review of the situation."
