B.C. gov’t providing $400K for school buses in New Westminster’s Queensborough area — but questions remain | CBC News
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The B.C. government is providing $400,000 in one-time funds to the New Westminster School District to fund a school bus program, although how the program will look in the fall remains up in the air.
Funding for the program, which sees schoolchildren in the Queensborough area bused to New Westminster Secondary through a privately-contracted service, was set to end in June.
It was partially dependent on parents paying a $30 monthly fee, and part of a pilot program that began in January 2024.
Before the provincial election that year, the B.C. NDP had promised that the program would be “permanent and free,” with Queensborough parents and students saying they would otherwise have to depend on comparatively slower and costlier public transit.
A pilot program for school buses in New Westminster, B.C.’s Queensborough neighbourhood is slated to end in June of next year. As Tanushi Bhatnagar reports, parents say losing the buses would make their kids’ journey to school long and unsafe.
Even with the new provincial funding that was announced earlier this week, the New Westminster School District says it’s working with the city and transit authority TransLink to find a long-term solution.
“The goal is to use these dollars to help transition from the current service model, which is a fully private-contracted service that the school district has implemented, to a new and sustainable program,” said New Westminster school board chair Cheryl Sluis.
Sluis said that, in previous years, provincial funding amounted to $435,000 per year — so the funding announced earlier this week would have only gotten the school district partway through next year under the current status quo.
“I think we’re hoping that TransLink will be able to find buses and resources to supplement the existing bus service that’s happening between Queensborough and New West Secondary,” she said.
“It’s unknown at this time what those details will be, but we do hope to have more information in the coming weeks and months.”
A spokesperson for TransLink said it had increased service on the 104 route through Queensborough in recent years, as well as the 128 route that served New Westminster Secondary.
“We are pleased the province has provided funding to the New Westminster School District,” they wrote in an email.
“TransLink continues to monitor ridership levels and work with partners across the region to ensure service is provided where it’s needed most.”
Parent unclear on next steps
Don Doyle, chair of the Queensborough Middle School parent advisory committee, said the newly-announced provincial funding amounted to a “little dab of money” to keep the buses going until a solution could be figured out.
He said whether parents would have to pay for the service, how much they’d have to pay, and how frequently the buses would run are all open questions.
Doyle said he was in favour of keeping the privately-run buses that are currently part of the program.
“I think for consistency — and students and teenagers, they need consistency — I think that would be the best way to go,” he said.
Education Minister Lisa Beare said the $400,000 one-time payment came amid “fiscal discipline” from the province, which is facing a forecasted $13.3-billion deficit.
In response to a question from CBC News on whether parents would still consider the lack of a permanent and free bus service a broken promise, Beare did not directly answer.
“We are in a different situation than we were in 2024, which is why it was important that we continue to support the parents and provide that additional $400,000,” she said.