AB school bus drivers still at work during strike

By Lethbridge Herald on October 10, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

With students out of school during the teachers strike, school buses are not operational and therefore their drivers are also waiting for the strike to end. 

Leslie Cross, president of Pacific Western Transportation student line of business, the corporate group that owns Southland Transportation here in Lethbridge, said they are keeping their drivers as engaged as possible while they wait to resume their daily routes. 

“We have them prepared to go on the road every morning,” said Cross. “They are coming in and completing the circle check on their vehicle, which is required by law each day before a bus goes on the road.”

He said drivers are also making sure their buses are fueled and cleaned and they have been busy doing paperwork. 

“We do route evaluations where we go and do one-on-one evaluations with our drivers to check their skills, so they are involved in that. We have some involved in training classes, upgrading their winter driving skills.”

Some of the work is being done online, while some of it is being done in classroom and some of it is being done one-on-one with the safety manager. 

“They’re not working regular school hours, but we’re finding training and experiences that will support them in their learning and their skills development while they’re awaiting schools to resume,” said Cross. 

Drivers are still being paid as their funding comes directly from the government of Alberta. 

“The Ministry of Education is flowing funding to make sure that drivers are supported an ready to go back to work as soon as school starts,” said Cross.  

Over the last several years, driver shortages have been a major problem for the industry coast to coast, he said, and the COVID-19 pandemic made things worse.  

“We have spent the last few years trying to get a full complement of school bus drivers that are ready to go and cover all the routes every day,” said Cross. 

“So, the last thing we want is for schools to resume in a week or two weeks and have a whole bunch of school bus drivers leave the industry to find other employment.” 

Asked about how long they can expect to be funded in the case of a prolonged strike, Cross said that for now there is no indication that the funding will stop. 

“We are not receiving 100 per cent of our funding right now because the buses aren’t running, so we’re not burning fuel, but there’s enough money there for us that allows us to continue to keep our drivers paid and ready to go.”