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THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, MARCH 7,2001 PAGE 3 'One of these mornings were going to wake up and find a whole bunch of kids standing at the corner': trustee School bus operators warn profits are being driven away by overhead BY JENNIFER STONE * Stuff Writer > Household budgets all over Ontario Ontario are feeling the pinch from the >price at the pumps. But imagine the effect on a budget >if you got a measly 2.84 kilometres ;-per litre of gas, and were filling up a "fleet of huge vehicles -- vehicles ."which travel kilometres and kilometres kilometres of roads all over the municipality, municipality, stopping and starting frequently - -'virtually each and every weekday train September to June. !- That's what school bus operators ;'with the Kawarlha Pine Ridge and ■'Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Northumberland and Clarington Catholic district (•school boards say is causing them intense intense financial difficulty. And they 'say they need answers now, since ."some operators' bottom lines have (-become negligible. That's a message Cthe local operators association has "taken to the two school boards over !-the past few weeks. * In fact, the public board was told ;Zin late February, without some resolution resolution to the problem by March 8, operators operators would have to meet with ad- -ministration to discuss what operators operators call "reduced transportation ^schedules for the rest of the school -year," says a letter to the board. "A comparison of our budgeted --fuel cost projections and the revenue ! paid by your board for school runs \ shows us that we can no longer oper- ; ate viable businesses without more « money from the board," read the Jan- ' uary letter from the Kawartha Pine l Ridge Public Separate School Bus * Association to the public school - board. Operators also say they ! haven't had a raise in about nine ; years. * Gas is the major problem opera- tors are dealing with, they say. In ! September 1999, they were paying ' about 49 cents for a litre of diesel - fuel. Now, the price is closer to 79 cents a litre. But other costs have ' jumped as well -- over the past * decade, the price of a school bus has - gone from about $52,000 to $74,000. The Province's Drive Glean program three Lianne Landry, vice-chairman of the Kawartha Pine Ridge Public Separate School Bus Association, says bus operators are in trouble. Rising gas prices and WALTER PASSARELLA/ Statesman photo other overhead costs have operators calling on school boards for financial help, or face "reduced transportation transportation schedules for the rest of the school year" "Wé' tjàfv rib'longer continue to absorb absorb these costs without some! sort of an increase," says Lianne Landry, vice-chairman of the operators' asso ciation, noting one operator has applied applied for bankruptcy protection, and "three or four more are in difficulty." She also says it doesn't look like matters matters are going to improve in the foreseeable foreseeable future, at least where gas prices are concerned. "Analysts are saying diesel fuel will hit the 90 cent (a litre) mark by June," she says. It's a position board staff is sympathetic sympathetic to, but can't provide many answers on. "If we look at the board's rate formula, formula, it's true that's been in place for quite some time without change," says Joel Sloggett, PVNC's manager of planning, assessment and transportation. transportation. "All (operators') costs have gone up. They can demonstrate that." But the board has no money:left in its reserve fund and Mr. Sloggett isn't sure'what can be done. "We're in a tight situation here," says the transportation manager. "We're not going to be able to come up with a lot of money to help with the short term." Money is something operators are going to have to talk to the Province about, says a public school board trustee. "Clearly, we don't have control over the resolution to the problem," says KPR chairman Bob Willsher. "We don't have the money sitting in a reserve fund to give them if we wanted wanted to." The Province last fall gave a onetime onetime payment to boards to distribute to its operators to help out with increased increased fuel costs. And transportation funding has yet to be determined fo the upcoming year, says a Ministry o Education spokesman. "Every March, we announce fund ing for the coming school year, si we're looking at a variety of issues ii terms of costs school boards are fac ing," says Rob Savage. "We are con tinning to look at issues of costs as sociated with transportation." - - Durham MPP John O'Toole say he'd like the boards to look at makin; "every route as efficient as possible in an effort to cut costs. To that end, the two local board have formed an ad-hoc joint trails portation committee, to look at way to link up and find more efficicn ways to get students to school. KP1 and PVNC have made a joint applica tion to the Province for an interest free loan to purchase software aimei at helping find efficiencies. Once the boards have made route as efficient as possible, "the Provinc- certainly has to look at the uncontrol lable costs (faced by operators) am I'm prepared to listen to the board a well," says Mr. O'Toole. In the interim, both trustees am operators will continue to lobby th> Province to help out on the shor term. It's absolutely necessary to di something, says Peterborough truste- Lome Corkery. "One of these mornings we'r- going to wake up and find a whol- bunch of kids standing at the corne because one of our bus operators ha gone bankrupt," warns Mr. Corker) adding the money may have to com- from somewhere other than th- board's coffers, since "it's not lega to print our own money." Don't let the weather interrupt your television viewing. In fact, the only thing you might see is this. I '• -• 1 Satellite signal not available Thinking about Satellite TV? You might want to think twice. ROGERS CABLE There's never been a better time to call 1-888-ROGERS1. "Rogers Communications Inc. 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