ISBOA Concerned about School Bus Driver Shortages
TORONTO, Sept. 1, 2017 /CNW/ - The members of the Independant School Bus Operators Association, a provincial industry group made up of school bus operators across Ontario, is very concerned about the continued delivery of service to the approximately 40% of students, in the province, who depend on busing.
At the beginning of the last school year, thousands of students were unable to access transportation to and from school due to school bus driver shortages.
This issue has been the focus of ISBOA members this summer and their work to avoid this problem from occurring again has been relentless. The ISBOA members want all students to arrive safely and on time to school and back home at the end of the day.
Earlier last month, the Ontario Ombudsman issued a report on his investigation into the problem of driver shortages last year. His report referrenced the cause of the driver shortages back to the Ministry of Education's direction that Ontario School Boards use a new procurement process referred to as an RFP. His report stated: "many of the underlying issues originated from the structure of the 2016 RFP" and, "The evaluation criteria used in the RFP were also problematic."
Since the implementation of the Ministry's new RFP procurement process introduced in 2009, there has been numerous, significant problems not the least of which is driver shortages.
Rates for service delivery have been driven down and created "a race to the bottom" which has forced many companies out of business, large companies turning back contracts and a large multinational service provider divesting its interest in the industry in Ontario.
A governement appointed Task Force chaired by retired Justice, Coulter Osborne, a government appointed Independent Review chaired by retired Justice Colin Campbell and now the Ombudsman's Report. All reports concluded the Ministry of Education was using a flawed procurement process.
Further to these Task Force, Independent Review and Obudsman's Report findings, courts have granted three injuctions against the procurement process and numerous other court decisions on related issues have gone against the government and school boards.
The members of ISBOA have provided bona fide solutions to the procurement issue but to date none of these solutions have been implemented.
Frank Healey, President of ISBOA states, "It is high time the government pays attention to the issues before them regarding procurement and act in the best interests of the users of our service by restoring confidence in the industry."
SOURCE Independent School Bus Operators Association
Roger Caranci, Executive Director, ISBOA, [email protected], Cell 519-636-3407; Frank Healey, President, Healey Transportation, Cell 613-223-6783
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