School division officials across the Lakeland say that school bus drivers are having to find consistent employment elsewhere as living costs rise.
Student bus transportation for the Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) has experienced one of the toughest years, for not only extreme weather, but also extreme driver shortages, explained Matt Richter, NLPS director of transportation.
“This past year has seen the most extreme shortage of drivers that we’ve ever known, there really is no solution in sight…to say the at least, the last six months have been a challenge—an extreme challenge.”
After multiple bus routes across the district have continued to face challenges this year with some of the most extreme cases causing bus services to shut down entirely, and others for several days in a row, Richter says the division is currently having to deal with inflation, rising fuel costs and drivers looking for other lines of work.
“In June of 2021, for diesel... we were paying 94 cents a litre. Today, depending on what town you're in, you're looking at upwards of $1.94 per litre, said Richter, calculating the double-down on costs as well as the cost-per kilometre increases. “You’re basically spending 63 cents per kilometre just on fuel alone on that bus.”
Fuel tank prices more than doubled
After assessing the concern and seeing how the prices of gas compare to staff wages, Ritcher says the price of fuel and millage alone supersedes what staff earn per day operating their routes, and considering bus drives have to be available all day… it is not a feasible lifestyle.
“We’re asking these individuals to commit their entire day—because they have to be available morning and night—to work for anywhere between $60 and $90 a day. On a 180-day school year on average…that's only between $11,000-$16,000 a year — and the poverty line in Canada is about $18,000.”
Compounding the crisis, Ritcher says many bus drivers are forced to look for jobs to earn a livable wage in other industries—even preferring minimum wage jobs where they can earn more.
“It’s where it is a greater benefit financially to work a full-time minimum wage job than to drive a bus. To me that’s a very sad state of affairs for student transportation,” he said.
Provincial funding
Looking for solutions to not only support wages but help cover additional costs like the Mandatory Entry Level Training Program (MELT) required for bus drivers, as well as rising insurance costs for contractors, school board officials have contacted Alberta’s Minister of Education and the province’s Minister of Transportation to request support. So far, those pleas have been met with little success, says NLPS board of trustees chairperson Karen Packard.
The release of the 2022 provincial budget plan in February did include a 4.6 per cent increase in transportation services to schools across the province to mitigate issues, but the support, Ritcher says doesn't fully address the current issues.
“Any increase is welcome and we're never going to say no, but unfortunately at the point, we're at right now and where the funding formula is, it is far out of date to accommodate the industry’s costs,” and with the challenges throughout the year only getting worse now bus services altogether are hanging on by a thread, he said.
NLPS officials have been working with neighbouring school districts, collecting shared experiences and similar outcomes. Provincially, most school divisions in rural Alberta are facing similar issues. As the discussions continue to roll along, the road ahead could get even bumpier, said Richter.
“Keeping bus drivers costs money, training costs money, fuel and parts cost money, and insurance costs money. The reality is 4.6 per cent does not satisfy to any degree anyone…the industry is basically, in my opinion on financial life support.”
Division officials are continuing to challenge provincial leaders to assist with the growing crisis.
There are currently 82 active bus routes across the 26-schools served in the Northern Lights region that stretches from Cold Lake to Wandering River.
