“All the high school students in Queensborough take this bus to get to the school,” says Abriel Doyle, a Grade 8 student at Queensborough Middle School, who is set to attend New Westminster Secondary next year.
“This bus needs to stay in Queensborough,” said Don Doyle, chair of the Queensborough Middle School parent advisory committee.
Some families in the New Westminster neighbourhood say secondary school students depend heavily on the program.
“Before this bus, the students would go to the bus stop and watch two, maybe three public buses go by, they’re full,” Doyle said.
The longest journey made by the Queensborough school bus is six kilometres, with an average time of around 20 minutes.
Doyle says if the school bus is discontinued, her journey to New Westminster Secondary next year would take nearly an hour on public transit.
“I could be running late to class, and that will affect my attendance and my overall grade,” Doyle said.
Parent Julieta Kawas says she is concerned about safety, saying that “a lot of parents are able to breathe easier knowing that their children are in a school bus.”
“There was a calm within all parents, but also the kids who were previously taking the public transit and now taking the bus — there’s a huge difference in anxiety and worry has gone down,” Kawas said.
Since January last year, nearly 200 students use the buses daily.
The New Westminster Board of Education points out Queensborough is the only neighbourhood with such a bus service due to how far it is from the high school.
It says last year, the program cost about $380,000 for five buses, and this year it’s added one more due to demand.
“This is not something that we have the funding to do on our own,” said Maya Russell, chair of the New Westminster Board of Education. “So we’re really looking to the province to fulfil the commitment that was made.”
Election promise
The bus pilot program started in January 2024. The B.C. NDP promised it would be “permanent and free” in October 2024, less than two weeks before the provincial election, with the party saying it planned to fund the program so families wouldn’t have to pay the monthly fee of $30.
Parents say they continue to pay the monthly fee. A monthly public transit pass for youth between the ages of 13 and 18 costs around $65.
“That was a direct promise to the people,” said Steve Kooner, the B.C. Conservative MLA for Richmond-Queensborough. “Now if the government denies that promise … you know, they break their word, that’s unethical.”
Lisa Beare, B.C.’s minister of education and child care, says the ministry is “working with our partners in the K-to-12 sector in the district to find that permanent solution for the Queensborough busing.”
Parents are gathering signatures on a petition that calls on the NDP government to ensure bus service extends beyond June 2026, and Kooner is promising to take the matter to the legislature this fall.
Source: CBC News
