The provincial government is taking major steps to enhance school bus safety says Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Gerard Greenan.
“Making sure that children are safe when travelling to and from school will always be one of our government’s top priorities,” he said. “Our new programs, policies and investments will now ensure that Island school buses are replaced in an orderly and sufficient manner, and that the situation that happened last year with an aging school bus fleet never happens again.”
Effective September 1, 2009, new government regulations will require that regular school buses must be replaced every 11 years and that spare buses must be replaced every 13 years. This will ensure that the school bus fleet is adequately refreshed and that the age of each bus in the fleet meets the new standards.
The new PEI regulations are similar to those in other provinces. In jurisdictions that legislate school bus replacement, the most common bus replacement standards are 10 to 14 years.
Government is able to implement the new regulations after purchasing 60 new school buses in 2008-2009 and 40 new buses in 2009-2010 at a total cost of $8 million.
“Prince Edward Island now has a modern school bus fleet and we will purchase a sufficient number of buses every year to keep it that way,” said Minister Greenan. “The new regulations mean that in the future the allocation of funding for school buses will no longer be discretionary, it will be required by law.”
There are 278 buses in the regular fleet and 41 spare buses. In the active fleet, 57 per cent of the buses are four years old or newer, 22 per cent are five to eight years old, and 21 per cent are eight to eleven years old.
Transportation and Public Works Minister Ron MacKinley said the main objective of the new school bus modernization program is to enhance student safety. “Since taking responsibility for school bus maintenance, my department has implemented a comprehensive school bus inspection program that ensures every school bus in the province receives a thorough structural and mechanical inspection on a regular basis,” he said. “Reducing the age of the school bus fleet has added benefits such as lower repair costs, and ever improving safety, engine performance and fuel efficiency standards.”