Question to Minister of Education: School Bus Contracts

Mr. Gilles Bisson: My question is to the Minister of Education. Minister, you’re currently changing the system by which school bus contracts are awarded in this province. Your new RFP process to date has had the effect of pushing out small locally owned bus companies in favour of larger corporate entities and/or multinational school bus companies.

Minister, why are you implementing an RFP system that has the effect of shutting down locally owned businesses?

Hon. Leona Dombrowsky: What I would say to the honourable member is that what we are trying to do with respect to supporting boards in the provision of transportation is to ensure that we have a transparent, an open and an accountable process that provides those services.

Up until now, for the most part, I think it’s fair to say that those transportation services have been engaged on basically a sole-sourced contract arrangement. What we are working on with boards and with the School Bus Operators’ Association of Ontario is a way that boards can engage these important services in a way that is fair and that ensures that we get the best service for the best price.

We have implemented some pilots in the province of Ontario. We are examining the results of those—

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. Supplementary?

Mr. Gilles Bisson: Minister, the effect of the pilots is pretty clear. In the case of Wellington and Dufferin, there are 439 routes that were put up, and 22 went to the locally owned businesses. I say to you again, why would the government of Ontario have a policy that says “We’re going to favour multinationals over locally owned businesses”?

I say to you again, why are you favouring a system that, at the end of the day, is going to put out of business people who have been working hard in the province for 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years in favour of large multinationals that do not have the same interests here in Ontario?

Hon. Leona Dombrowsky: Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, when the pilots were under way—I know that the honourable member is choosing those numbers; it suits his purpose.

But it’s more accurate to report that, as a result of pilot initiative, what we found is that there were winners and losers. What is accurate to say is that some of the winners were the small single one- and two-bus operators, and some of the winners were larger businesses. Again, the losers, some were one- and two-bus operators, but also some were larger businesses. We continue to work with the School Bus Operators’ Association of Ontario to understand how we can work with them.

Of course, the priority for all of us is to ensure that our children are transported in a safe, efficient manner, and then we say to the parents and to the taxpayers of Ontario—

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. New question.