'A hardship for everyone': Lack of spare drivers leads to bus route cancellation in rural Sask.

CANORA, Sask. -

A lack of spare bus drivers has led to parents in rural Sask. to find their own transportation to and from school for their children.

A bus route in the Good Spirit School Division (GSSD) has been cancelled due to driver illness. The division has said service is expected to resume in mid to late September.

Stacy Vangen, who has two sons who take the bus to Canora Composite School, said the bus service ran as usual on the first day of school, then the following day she received a message saying the driver was ill and they would need to provide their own transportation.

Two days after the initial message, ahead of the next school week, an automated message informed parents they would need to continue to provide their own transportation for the week. Another message from the division was received that Friday, Sept. 9, stating the driver was still ill and there was no substitute available.

“It’s a hardship for everyone and I just think that we have to bring some attention to it so people realize and we can maybe help facilitate some change,” said Vangen, who lives 28 kilometers southeast of Canora.

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Vangen works off of their family's farm, while her husband works both on and off of the farm. The cancellation has forced Vangen to switch shifts at work to ensure she is available to get the kids to and from school.

“We’ve got a lot of moving pieces in our family, and it’s not just our own family,” said Vangen.

“We know that there’s families that they only have one vehicle and one of the parents needs to go to work, and so for those kids it means they can’t necessarily get to school.”

For Sheldon Derkatch, the cancellations have caused his daughter, who is in Grade 8 at Canora Composite, to miss a day of school.

He explained he and his wife had to head out early one morning, so his wife could receive cancer treatment in Regina, leaving their daughter with no way to get to school.

For the time being, Derkatch and his wife will be able to drive their daughter to and from school as she is a few weeks off from her next treatment, but it is still inconvenient.

“Morning is rough on her, she should be laying down resting and stuff like that, but instead of doing that she’s got to get up and get our daughter to school every day,” said Derkatch.

He said his biggest frustration at the moment is the lack of a backup plan in the event drivers are unable to drive.

Good Spirit School Division said it is experiencing a shortage when it comes to spare bus drivers, adding the organization is meeting challenges in trying to recruit and maintain.

“We’re looking at different ways of making that maybe a bit more attractive,” said Quintin Robertson, director of education and CEO of GSSD. He added that the school is looking at solutions above and beyond what’s been done in the past.

“One solution might be, that we’re exploring with our local association, our union, [is] the concept of a permanent spare driver, someone that’s on contract as a spare.”

Derkatch is worried about the length of time it will take for the division and transportation to find a solution to the problem.

“I understand people get sick, but at least have a backup plan for somebody to fill in for the person,” Derkatch said.

Vengen said she is left wondering how much longer this will go on for, adding it’s concerning to see this issue so early in the school year.

She said education is important for our children and they need to make sure that they are able to get to school consistently so they can get the education that they need to be successful.

“If we can’t provide transportation, that’s a pretty basic need especially in rural Saskatchewan,” she explained. “It’s not a new need that we have in our communities.”

Parents are able to fill out forms to get compensated in this particular instance.

Canora Composite School has said it understands the difficulties for parents and that ‘there is a financial cost to drive their children to school.”