ATHABASCA/BARRHEAD/WESTLOCK — Local school divisions are applauding the decision by the Alberta government to remove the Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT) requirements for Class 2 drivers, which created a financial hardship for school jurisdictions and impeded the recruitment of school bus drivers.
“This is really good news … for rural Alberta especially, because attracting bus drivers is hard enough," said Aspen View Public Schools board chair Candyce Nikipelo. “(MELT) has been one of our speaking points .... in meetings that we’ve had with ministry over our transportation concerns for years now.”
Judy Lefebvre, board chair of the Pembina Hills School Division, also stated in an e-mail that the division “sees this as a positive step in its recruitment of bus drivers.”
The dropping of MELT requirements as of April 23, 2023 was announced by minister of transportation and economic corridors Devin Dresheen in a news conference in Riviére Qui Barre on April 13.
Dresheen said that school divisions, bus companies and other private contractors throughout Alberta are currently facing a dilemma of being unable to find enough drivers.
Currently, there are more than 5,000 commercial truck driver vacancies and 335 school bus driver vacancies within the province, Dresheen said.
“The commercial driver shortage is a problem for Alberta,” he said, noting that the high vacancies among commercial drivers were directly impacting the movement of goods and services in the province.
For several years now, one of the biggest impediments to school bus and commercial driver recruitment has been the MELT requirement for Class 2 licences, which was introduced on March 1, 2019, following the Humboldt Broncos bus crash tragedy.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from the bussing industry, particularly the school bus drivers, that MELT Is a barrier to hiring drivers in the province,” Dresheen said.
Nikipelo indicated that the first problem with MELT was the cost, which was initially around $10,000. It was also very time-intensive, requiring drivers to complete a 50-hour program.
Eventually, the cost of MELT was lowered to around $5,000, Nikipelo said, but then school divisions faced a new problem: potential drivers getting their Mandatory Entry Level Training done via a grant and then going off to find other more lucrative work.
Nikipelo stressed that MELT wasn’t necessarily a bad program, but it was another hoop that potential drivers had to jump through, which wasn’t conducive to recruitment.
Although other provinces had a MELT requirement in place for Class 1 licences, Dresheen said Alberta was the only province/territory in Canada to make it mandatory for Class 2 licences.
In addition to driver shortages, Dresheen indicated the dropping of MELT requirements was also being spurred by Alberta Education reducing the distance requirement for students to receive free transportation.
As of now, students in Grades 1-6 will be able to access bus transportation if they live at least one kilometre away from their designated school, while students in Grades 7-12 will be able to access transportation if they live more than two kilometres away starting in September 2024.
Previously, the minimum distance requirement for all students had been 2.4 kilometres from their designated school. Once all the changes have been implemented, an estimated 80,000 students throughout Alberta will have been impacted.
“So now there’s additional demand for more school buses, because now more kids (especially in urban areas) are being bussed to school,” Dresheen said.
“We wanted to look at every possible way to make sure we could attract more drivers to the industry.”
It should be noted that while the MELT requirement is being dropped, Alberta will still require school bus drivers to possess an ‘S’ endorsement on their licence.
This required class of licence for school bus drivers is decided by the designed seating capacity on buses. The province is maintaining support for drivers to obtain this ‘S’ endorsement, Dresheen noted.
Lefebvre added that although the province is still requiring the ‘S’ endorsement on bus drivers’ licences, the number of hours of mandatory training to achieve that endorsement will be reduced.
“(That) will hopefully attract an increase in future bus drivers in Pembina Hills,” Lefebvre said.
New training
In addition to the MELT announcement, Dresheen said a new voluntary on-the-job training program for Class 2 and Class 4 school bus drivers will be available by the end of April.
“This training will support drivers to obtain the skills required to operate a school bus safely,” he said.
As well, the Transportation and Economic Corridors department has developed a new voluntary on-the-job training grant program for Class 1 drivers, and post-licencing options is being created “for industry by industry” in partnership with the Alberta Motor Transport Association.
This voluntary training program for licenced Class 1 drivers will be designed to provide participants with job-related skills, knowledge and competencies to meet the full scope of work performed by commercial truck drivers.
