School bus sub shortage renews calls for financial assistance
Nancy Russell | CBC News | Posted: February 1, 2017 3:30 PM | Last Updated: February 1, 2017
'We could definitely use additional drivers throughout the whole province'
The union representing school bus drivers on P.E.I. is renewing calls for financial assistance for training new drivers after the shortage forced some creative problem-solving earlier this month.
When they couldn't find a substitute for one of the drivers, some students at St. Louis Elementary had to wait for one of the bus drivers to do her route and come back for a second load.
"The decision was made to try and have the students transported home on the other buses that are existing at the school," explained John Cummings of the P.E.I. Public Schools Branch.
'It has always been a challenge'
The shortage of substitute drivers is not an isolated occurrence.
"We're probably in a greater need in rural areas but we could definitely use additional drivers throughout the whole province," said Cummings.
Cummings estimates there are about 60 substitutes, down slightly from a year ago.
"It has always been a challenge and continues to be a challenge," said Cummings.
Ongoing shortage
Then Education Minister Alan McIsaac was considering paying some of the up-front costs for training and then having the drivers pay the province back through the money they earn. That never went through.
Most school bus drivers on P.E.I. get their training at JVI Transportation Academy. It takes three weeks and $3,000.
JVI has also created a compressed program for people who already have specialized driver training. It's one week and costs $1,300.
Finding financing
Donna Keizer, president of CUPE 1145 , which represents school bus drivers in P.E.I., thinks some financial support would go a long way to solving the shortage.
"I think it would be great if they could offer them some financing, it's quite costly," said Keizer.
"If we're short on drivers, maybe financing from the Schools Branch would maybe fill our substitute pool up a little bit more."
Cummings pointed to one successful partnership in 2015, where a community group called Rural Community Learning Inc. paired up with Skills PEI to foot the bill for training substitute bus drivers.
"That was successful and did ultimately result in four additional staff coming on as substitute employees," he said.
Funding 'a big, big factor'
Kirby Lund has been working as a substitute bus driver for almost a year. He was looking for a career change after working in hardware retail and then doing a stint out west.
He was eligible for funding for training as a school bus driver through Career Development Services P.E.I.
"Definitely a big, big factor. It's one of the reasons I got involved in it. It was the funding," said Lund.
Lund works for five hours a day, leaving him time for another job doing home renovation projects between the morning and afternoon runs.
"It's steady, you probably get two to three trips a week," he said.
"One of my goals would be to become full-time."
Subs move on to full-time
That's one of the ongoing challenges for the Public Schools Branch.
"You're always trying to replenish the pool because our substitute pool is where we recruit most of our full time drivers," said Cummings.
"It's always going to be something that we continue to work on."
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