Students at 2 Ontario boards have been without buses for weeks. There may finally be a solution

After more than a month without buses at two Ontario school boards, a tentative deal has been reached, potentially bringing an end to weeks of transportation chaos for parents and their children.

Students at both the Renfrew County District School Board near Ottawa, and its Catholic counterpart, have been forced to find alternative ways of getting to class this year after the two boards failed to reach an agreement with bus companies before school resumed.

The two boards blamed the Ford government for the issue and said a lack of provincial funding to transport children to school left them in a pinch. For weeks, the boards and bus companies were deadlocked, with both sides adamant they couldn’t find common ground.

The government was asked to send the boards more money and refused, reiterating figures that show an increase in year-on-year funding for the boards.

Ontario NDP education critic Chandra Pasma said that in the relatively rural areas served by the Renfrew County school boards, the standoff meant some parents driving hours every day to get their kids to school.

“You have to remember Renfrew County is a big place, so some people are driving two hours a day to and from school to pick their kids up and drop them off,” she said in a late September interview with Global News.

“Some people are missing work, some people have lost their jobs because of it, some people are finding they have to work into the evening or find other routes to be able to keep working.”

On Sept. 20, after more than two weeks without buses, both boards promised parents financial compensation for the situation.

“We are working urgently with the Ministry to explore the possibility of financial compensation for families without school bus service and will share details as soon as possible,” said a statement from the Catholic board read, more than two weeks after children returned to class on Sept. 4.

“We understand that this is not a solution, but we hope to mitigate some financial strain that the transportation disruption may have caused for families.”

At one point, in a note to parents, one of the boards suggested cuts could be necessary to fund a bus deal, saying the cost of buses may only be covered by moving money “from education budgets to the transportation budget.”

Then late on Monday, after repeatedly stalled talks, the boards announced an agreement was close.

A joint statement from the school boards and bus companies said had been reached “in principle,” with a promise of finalized details by the end of the week.

“A tentative start date for transportation services will be shared by the bus companies by Friday, Oct. 11 with confirmation of the start date to be received by early next week,” the statement said.

“The agreements will be finalized during the next week, but we can report that these are multi-year agreements that at minimum will run until the end of the 2028-2029 school year.”

Education Minister Jill Dunlop welcomed the tentative deal and repeated the government’s line that funding has increased for school boards to spend on bussing.

“All school boards across Ontario received an increase to their student transportation budget this year, with double digit increases in Renfrew,” she said in a statement.

“As a parent who relied on bus transportation for my own children, I understand the difficult position the disruption caused students and parents in Renfrew and I’m glad to hear students will finally have access to reliable transportation services and that parents will be compensated by the school boards.”

Pasma said that the length of time it took to reach a deal, however, suggested Renfrew County wasn’t a priority for the province.

“Maybe because it’s Renfrew County and it’s not on the government’s priority list — a little too far from Toronto, they feel like it can be ignored,” she said.

“But the outrage people are feeling in Renfrew County is pretty high right now.”