THUNDER BAY -- There is a new school bus policy in place for cold winter temperatures in the city.
If the temperature reaches -37 C at 5 a.m., without the windchill, school bus transportation will be cancelled for the day, said David Carroll, consortium manager for Student Transportation Services in Thunder Bay.
The reasoning is all about safety, said Carroll.
“When you get that cold of a temperature the motor vehicles or the school buses run into difficulty and we had some breakdowns. As far as safety is concerned, we don’t want to have a student waiting for a bus that’s not going to show up and especially when it’s -40 C or -37 C,” he said.
The procedure follows the same protocol that would unfold in a snowstorm. At 5 a.m., the message would be sent to both local school boards and media outlets to get the message out to parents and students.
Looking back at past winters, Carroll said two years ago, this kind of policy wouldn’t have been used and last year it would have only been used twice, but those days were during the Christmas holidays so no school days would have been affected.
The cold weather policy goes into effect immediately.
--With files from CKPR Radio
