Update on School Buses

Many residents continue to reach out expressing their frustration with the lack of student transportation. Although student transportation is outside municipal jurisdiction, I continue to be engaged on this issue and am working to pressure those responsible for this shortfall (particularly OSTA) to act. 

You can read about my initial actions on the file here: School bus impacts in the community — Ward 21 (Rideau-Jock)

Some residents have asked for an update on what I am working on to help address this issue. I recently attended a briefing between OSTA and other rural Councillors to better understand the root cause of the issue and what can be done to solve it. In the short term, OSTA says that they are looking into the following options:

·         Private coach buses for high school students

·         Re-designing routes to combine/lengthen routes

·         Reassigning students to another route at a stop further from home

·         Using ParaTranspo for wheelchair service

·         Reassigning students to OC Transpo

·         Reassigning students to vans

Even so, the meeting with OSTA did not inspire confidence in their ability to return bus service to students soon or consistently.

As a result, I am currently writing a letter to Education Minister Stephen Lecce requesting his intervention on the file. Currently I am seeking feedback and comments on the letter and looking to get additional signatories from among my Council colleagues, which means the letter is still in a draft stage. I will also ask MPP Ghamari, who has consistently been an active and leading voice on this file, to provide her expertise on the letter prior to its submission to Minister Lecce.

The letter will outline for the Minister how parents are driving students sometimes over half an hour, often visiting more than one school per morning for multi-child households, and waiting extended periods of time just to drop their children off at school. It speaks to the costs, career impacts, safety concerns, and education access issues that stem from this failure to provide student transportation. And the letter identifies how OSTA and the School Boards – the organizations most responsible for addressing this issue – lack the capacity to solve this challenge on their own.

The letter outlines numerous powers that are at the Minister’s disposal to intervene and resolve this issue, including his authority to set policies and guidelines for school boards and compel compliance as well as to reorganize boards. The province also has greater fiscal capacity to provide funding necessary address the issue.

As a result, the letter will ask the Minister to provide funding necessary to solve this issue in the short term. In the long term, it will request the setting of clear direction for the school boards (and by extension OSTA) to provide student transportation as a matter of provincial policy. It will also ask the Minister to consider restructuring the school boards if they fail to develop an effective long-term strategy for student transportation.

Although the Minister is not responsible for the failure, he does have the ability to help, and so I will be raising the concerns of the community with him and his staff.

I will share the letter with the community once it is finalized and sent to the Minister; please make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter to stay tuned.

My office and I have also been working with By-law, Ottawa Police, and traffic staff at the City to explore options to improve safety around schools, direct traffic, and improve speed and efficiency. Given the number of drop offs and pick ups happening, I would recommend that residents double check where they are parking as some cars have unfortunately been left in no-parking zones, which creates challenges for everyone.  

Unfortunately, my role as a City Councillor is very limited on this file. Student transportation does not fall under municipal jurisdiction; it is a responsibility of the school boards, and they have delegated this authority to OSTA. Even so, I will keep working as best I can to raise this issue with the people in a position to solve it.

Lastly, if you or someone you know might be interested in driving a school bus, click this link for information on the opportunities available for drivers: Landing page - Drive Yellow