Province has no effective system to ensure school bus safety, says N.B. auditor general

New Brunswick's Department of Education lacks oversight on school bus safety and driver requirements, the auditor general said in a scathing report Tuesday.

"Our audit work concluded that the department does not have effective systems and processes to monitor and ensure compliance with legislation and departmental policies relating to pupil transportation," Auditor General Paul Martin wrote in his report.

"Additionally, the department does not have strategies in place to ensure sufficient staffing levels of bus drivers."

Martin's report is heavy on statistics, and opens with several highlighted numbers to make his point.

Of the drivers audited for the report, 46 per cent did not demonstrate compliance with licensing requirements; 20 per cent did not have a criminal record check on file; 37 per cent did not have proof of bus training from when they were hired; and 42 per cent did not have proof of first aid training.

Auditor General Paul Martin's report said 46 per cent of bus drivers included in the audit didn't meet licensing standards. (Ed Hunter/CBC)

Additionally, 45 per cent of bus inspections done during the audit noted deficiencies.

Martin said the province has 107,000 school children and 78 per cent of them are bused to school. Non-compliance with rules around bus safety "could increase the risk of endangering a vulnerable population," he said.

The audit took place in January and February, and aimed to review school bus driver personnel files, relevant policy, legislation, contracts, and school bus inspection/maintenance records.

Hogan admits there is work to be done

Education Minister Bill Hogan was questioned by Liberal MLA Francine Landry of Madawaska Les Lacs-Edmundston over the issue in Tuesday's question period.

"The Higgs government has been touting their record on keeping children safe, while failing to fulfil the most basic requirements for doing so," Landry said.

Hogan responded that he takes the findings seriously.

"Clearly there's some work to be done in that area in making sure that they're inspected on time," Hogan said.

WATCH |  'Clearly there is some work to be done':

"And we don't take that lightly that there's issues with some school buses, that there's some issues around log books, and there's some issues around the condition of the school buses, because we want safe transportation for all of our children."

Hogan said his department is going to work with school districts to ensure that records for school bus drivers are kept up to date and they include all their required documentation, and that drivers over 65 are deemed medically fit to work.

The department will also require a minimum requirement of annual school bus driver refresher courses that highlight driver responsibilities.

"This will be completed by August 2024, because this isn't something that we want to hold off on," Hogan said.

Several buses failed safety requirements

Out of a fleet of 1,304 provincially owned and leased school buses, 63 were found to be overdue on vehicle inspections, and 311 with overdue maintenance.

The four school districts of Anglophone South, Anglophone West, Anglophone East, and Francophone Sud were included in Martin's audit. Sixty provincial drivers and five contracted drivers had their files examined, while 20 buses were physically examined by the auditor general.

Martin said 63 buses were missing valid vehicle inspections, while 311 had overdue maintenance. (Roger Cosman/CBC)

"None of the tested school districts demonstrated full compliance with legislation and policy," Martin said.

CBC reached out to the four districts for comment. A spokesperson for Anglophone West directed all questions to the province, while no one from the other three districts responded.

Driver safety issues

While the province is in the beginning stages of developing a recruitment and retention strategy for bus drivers, Martin said the government still lacks staffing targets and objectives or a contingency plan for short-term absences.

One driver included in the audit had nine driving infractions between 2001 and 2015, which would be deemed unacceptable to department standards, Martin said. These infractions included five instances of speeding, two accidents, one collision and one seatbelt violation.

The auditor general's report does not identify the driver or the school district, and does not specify if these infractions were committed while driving a school bus.

The report found instances of bus drivers with past speeding infractions, accidents and an impaired driving charge. (Sam Farley/CBC)

Martin also highlighted an instance of a driver with a previous impaired driving charge.

"In our testing we observed a driver's criminal record with convictions relating to driving under the influence, the last one dated 10 years prior to their hire date as a school bus driver," Martin said.

"None of these cases had evidence of superintendent review and approval."

The auditor general also found that there is no department-wide policy on annual refresher driving courses, and was told by the Education Department that it lets individual school districts decide what courses need refreshing each year.

Superintendents are responsible for conducting performance evaluations of school personnel.

Martin found that of the four districts audited for how they conduct these evaluations for bus drivers, one does not conduct any, one recently started to conduct them for a small number of drivers, one does them on a five-year rotation, and the fourth does them only for permanent drivers on a three-year rotation.

Of the 65 driver files audited, 44 per cent did not have any evaluation on record, Martin said.