'Biggest concern is absenteeism': School bus companies worried about cancellations due to potential driver illness
When school returns in-person Monday, school bus companies across the province are worried about potential driver shortages due to the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
"The biggest concern of course, is going to be absenteeism," says Nancy Daigneault, executive director of School Bus Ontario.
"We won't know until next week, it's a really day-by-day sort of thing because drivers are going to be calling in if they're sick. We don't know what that rate is going to be, but we anticipate it'll be higher as the school week goes on."
With a five to 10 per cent cent driver shortage across the province, parents are being asked to check their local bus websites to ensure their child has a driver that day.
"It's a day-to-day concern we have as bus operators," says Rob Murphy, vice-president of Murphy Bus Lines which services Southwestern Ontario. "We're doing wellness checks with the drivers to make sure they're ready for Monday but someone could test positive and then we would be short drivers. All parents and students should continue to monitor the local consortium websites for delays and cancellations for next week"
Murphy says those websites are www.mybigyellowbus.ca in the London-Middlesex area, and www.ourschoolbuses.ca in Huron-Perth.
That same concern goes for the drivers behind the wheel.
"Most of us are retired and a lot of us are in our 70s, so it's concerning for us to try and keep as safe as we can," says Nancy Bieber, who is in her 38th year driving bus in Lucan, Ont. "I feel safe because Murphy's is doing everything they can to keep us safe. They give us the gloves and the masks and they are giving us the new N95 masks. They'll be on our bus when we get there Monday."
What they won't have when they return to work Monday is Rapid Antigen Tests. The province is giving two tests to each child, but the bus drivers won't have them immediately.
"They gave them to the kids to test but they didn't give them the bus drivers and I think would be helpful," says Bieber. "If we're not feeling good in the morning we could take a test. Murphy's does have some at the office but if we could do it at home that would be better."
Rob Murphy says the tests are coming, adding, "We will get them hopefully next week from our local consortium and get them into the hands of the drivers as soon as possible."
When it comes to protocols on the bus, Murphy says they will take the same approach as the last time the buses were running.
"All drivers will sanitize their bus once in the morning after their bus routes and then once in the afternoon after their bus routes."
The seat behind the driver will also be kept empty for airflow and for the safety of all. Some areas and bus companies are opening windows when the weather dictates.
"That is the plan for better ventilation but with -15 or -20 degree weather, those windows are frozen," says Murphy. "So we're not going to get much ventilation through the bus."
Bieber, who has had two COVID-19 positive children on her bus during the pandemic, is ready to get back behind the wheel come Monday. She's never contracted the virus, but at least with previous contact tracing, she knew when one of the students were ill.
"They told us before when we had a case, but they don't tell you who it is," says Bieber. "They just say you have a case on your bus, which I think they should continue doing."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.