PRINCE ALBERT — The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division’s transportation accountability report shows bus route cancellations increased significantly in 2024-25.
The Sask. Rivers board got a look at the report during their regular meeting on Monday. It shows 575 routes cancelled from January 2024 to January 2025. That’s an increase from the 254 cancellations the year before.
The report covers the first part of the school year from September 2024 to January 2025.
Weather was the biggest cause of cancellations with 553.5 routes.
"We had such a beautiful winter last winter. I would say this is more of a typical (or) an average winter,” Education Director Neil Finch said. “It hasn't been too stormy or too cold for most of the winter, but there's been days that we've had to cancel as a result of the amount of snow that's been getting.”
There were also 17.5 routes cancelled because a substitute driver was not available. There were also four routes cancelled due to mechanical issues.
The division also continues to see a large number of City bus passes purchased. In the report, it states that 1,123 were purchased this year compared to 1,266 the year before.
According to the report, recruiting and hiring bus drivers is a challenge in other divisions but Sask Rivers seems to be having better luck as they have all regular bus routes filled.
"It's always tough to recruit bus drivers, but we are just staying on top of it for sure,” Finch said.
Each division in Saskatchewan receives this report from the Ministry of Education four times a year to see how the division's buses, drivers and mechanics are doing. The report is done semi-annually in the division.
The oral report was given by Chief Financial Officer Jerry Pidborochynski. The report featured data up to Jan. 31, 2025.
The number of students transported has decreased slightly from the previous report in 2024. In 2025 there were 3,321 students transported compared to 3,368 in 2022.
The average age of the bus fleet has increased from eight years in 2024 to eight and a half years in 2025, according to Pidborochynski more new buses are expected to come into service in the future which will lower the age. There are currently 104 transportation routes with 25 contracted out.
The average urban one-way bus ride is 15 minutes while the average rural bus ride one-way is 26 minutes. The longest urban one-way bus ride is 75 minutes and the longest rural one-way bus ride is 95 minutes.
There were no reported complaints of a serious nature in the report.
