Hamilton school boards may be dealing with a shortage of school bus drivers again this fall

Hamilton’s public and catholic school boards are not short on school bus drivers yet…

“however we know similar to last year and the year before, around this time we tend to learn of drivers who drop off, so we are expecting delays at the beginning of the school year.”

Public school board chair Todd White says the primary problem is lack of transportation funding.

“I’m not sure ministry funding has caught up to the expenses in the industry for school bus companies”.

White says school bus companies also have trouble retaining the drivers they have. Last year Education Minister Mitzie Hunter tasked an executive panel with sorting out the problems, but nothing was resolved.

Last year’s minimum wage increase was also difficult for bus companies to manage. The school board says it may have to look beyond trying to recruit and retain drivers and stop relying on black and yellow school busses. It may eventually mean students use the city bus or walk to school if it’s safe to do so.

The school board says students may be affected in the same way they were last year. There were no cancellations but some routes, some days, had delays of 10 minutes to up to 40 minutes.

Parents can sign up for alerts to find out if their child’s bus will be delayed.