Yellowknife school superintendent says 'dramatic changes' needed to address school bus driver shortage

Parents in Yellowknife are grappling with another wave of school bus route cancellations.

"I worry that it is an access to education issue and it's also a bit of an equity issue," said Meaghan McLaren, whose two children were on the latest route to be cancelled.

While she says she and her partner now have flexibility to be able to drop off and pick up their kids, it wasn't always that way.

"There have been other times in our careers where this would have been very stressful and very hard to navigate with just a week's notice."

The latest round of cancellations happened last Friday.

The Yellowknife Public Education District No. 1 (YK1) issued a notice saying that Route 5 would be cancelled as of May 1. Routes 10 and 12, which stopped earlier this year, remain cancelled, while Routes 9 and 13 have been merged.

"First Transit has indicated there is no additional space on other routes to accommodate families affected by the disruptions listed above," reads the notice.

'Change the business model' 

First Transit, the company contracted to provide bus services for YK1, has said a shortage of drivers is the cause of the cancellations.

Jameel Aziz is the superintendent for the Yellowknife public school board, YK1.

He says that driving buses part-time is not as attractive to people as it used to be.

"Post-COVID, we have seen that retirees who often were the bus drivers, are simply not interested in that kind of work," he said. "It's not a Yellowknife issue, it's really an issue across all of North America."

First Transit is responsible for buses for YK1, the Yellowknife Catholic Schools, and the Commission scolaire francophone Territoires du Nord-Ouest.

Aziz says the three boards are working together to come up with a solution "because none of us can afford to run a bus system on our own."

However, Aziz admits the solutions proposed so far — combining some routes, doubling others — ultimately aren't helpful to parents already struggling to get their kids to school.

They also don't address the root cause of the shortage.

"We are really advocating with bus ownership to look at these jobs and make them more attractive for people," said Aziz. "If you run a business and clearly you know employees are telling you that your business model is not attractive to them, then you have to change the business model."

First Transit did not respond to a request for comment.

Transdev, an international transit company, recently acquired First Transit.

Aziz says the school board has had a first meeting with the new owners to explain the problem.

He added that unless Transdev makes "dramatic changes" to its contract to try and get new drivers, it's unlikely the issue will be resolved before the next school year.

So far, he says the board is not aware of any children missing school due to the bus shortage.

Any parents facing that possibility, he says, should get in touch with their school principal and they may be able to arrange a short-term solution.

McLaren says the community is also trying to come with a fix.

Some families, she says, are considering hiring a private van or bus to pick up kids. But that obviously comes at an extra cost to parents.

With warmer weather and the end of the school year around the corner, McLaren says kids are also excited to do a "bike train" up Franklin Ave.