School bus service in Grey and Bruce counties will run normally when classes resume September 8, according to the Student Transportation Service Consortium of Grey Bruce.
Bluewater District School Board announced Thursday that an agreement in principle has been reached with local bus operators, one day before the deadline the operators’ association had set for a signed deal.
“We are glad to confirm that an agreement in principle has been reached, and student transportation will proceed as normal for the start of the school year in September,” the board said in a notice posted to its website. The statement was issued on behalf of Bluewater, Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board and Shared School Services.
The boards said they had negotiated for several months in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education, and worked to balance operators’ cost pressures against their responsibility to manage public funds.
Families still have to opt in for bussing
Students will not be assigned to a bus route unless a parent or guardian opts in for each child through the Edulog parent portal.
Bluewater stopped assigning routes automatically on August 7. The change is not related to the contract negotiations, the consortium said Tuesday. It applies regardless of the deal.
Instructions are on the board’s transportation page.
How it was resolved is not public
The notice gives no terms. It does not say what the boards agreed to pay, over what period, or how many years the agreement covers.
It does not say whether the Ministry of Education provided additional funding to close the gap, as the ministry did in Renfrew County in 2024, when it added $2.2 million after a comparable impasse left students without buses for more than a month.
An agreement in principle is not a signed contract. The notice does not say when the parties expect to sign.
Four days
Bluewater notified families on Monday that bus service “may not be available for all students” in September.
School Bus Ontario, the association representing operators, said the same day that all six companies contracted through the Student Transportation Service Consortium of Grey Bruce were without agreements, that roughly 308 routes and more than 16,000 students were affected, and that buses would not run on the first day of school unless contracts were signed by Friday, August 21.
The association told the Current on Tuesday afternoon that negotiations had resumed. On Wednesday, Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Paul Vickers said he had been engaged with Education Minister Paul Calandra on the matter “for some time” and that the goal was an agreement before Friday.
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