No school bus driver shortage in Sudbury this year
An ongoing shortage of school bus drivers in Sudbury has been addressed thanks to people like Marc Taillefer.
Taillefer, an educator in Sudbury for more than three decades, is preparing for his first year as a school bus driver.
“I taught music at Lo-Ellen for 34 years and I retired in June," he told CTV News.
"I was looking for a little something to keep me busy and also I had a couple of students last year that lived in Massey and they missed four, five maybe six days of school because they didn’t have a bus. So there was definitely a need.”
A driver shortage and constant sick calls were to blame for multiple bus cancellations last year in the city, but it's something officials are hoping won't be an issue this year.
“I’m happy to say that at this moment -- and I have to say just this moment -- we’re good with our drivers,” said Renée Boucher, Sudbury Student Services Consortium executive director.
"So all of our school bus operators have enough drivers to cover all of their runs and they also have spare drivers to help so for sickness or anything else."
There are 390 school bus routes in the city and Boucher estimates there are 450 drivers in total right now.
“What we often see as school starts, and after a week or two, some drivers decide that it's not something that they want to continue full time," she said.
"So we are really hoping that all of our drivers remain.”
She said the easing of COVID-19 protocols should also help.
“It used to be 10 days isolation went down to five days and now they’re just asking that we remain home if we are sick and once we don’t have any symptoms we can go back," Boucher said.
"Of course, we will continue providing masks to our drivers so hopefully that will help getting drivers back behind the wheel of a school bus.”
Boucher said everyone should expect delays the first few days of school as everyone gets back into a routine.
For more busing information, click here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.