Renfrew County’s school bus co-ordinators say they are continuing to work with local bus companies to make sure all routes in the county are covered.
The Renfrew County Joint Transportation Consortium (RCJTC) issued a warning just before the start of the school year that a shortage of school bus drivers meant some regularly scheduled routes may have to be cancelled.
In a memo posted online August 29, the RCJTC said it had received notice from some of its school bus contractors that “they have not been able to retain, recruit and train enough drivers to cover all their routes.”
But in an update last week, the consortium said it wanted to thank “all the new and returning bus drivers, monitors, dispatchers, and mechanics that allowed us to safely deliver over 98% of students to school throughout the first week of school.”
Two bus routes in the county remain cancelled – one in Petawawa and one serving Bishop Smith Catholic High School in Pembroke.
“Since receiving notice from our contracted local bus operators that they were unable to retain, recruit and train enough drivers to cover all routes, RCJTC staff have been working tirelessly to propose alternative route solutions that would enable service to return to the families impacted by the driver shortage,” the agency said.
“To date, none of these proposals have been accepted by the contracted local bus operators.”
The RCJTC said it had also reached out to transportation companies outside of Renfrew County to obtain coverage for the cancelled routes “but thus far have been unable to find any that are willing to provide service.”
“We will continue to work collaboratively with our local contracted school bus operators to propose solutions with the hope that we can find a plan that they will find agreeable and enables service to return to the impacted families.”
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