First Nation to get school bus service for first time this year

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This article was published 18/10/2015 (3835 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Children at Garden Hill First Nation will soon be able to take the bus to school for the first time this school year.

None of the remote First Nation’s school buses were repaired and safety certified in time for the start of school this fall, say the chief and council. They blame the delay on a third-party manager appointed by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, which is handling the band’s finances.

The federal government says the First Nation is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the buses with “assistance” from the third-party manager.

The buses serve the growing young community’s estimated 600 elementary school students and 331 high school students, said councillor Mark Morrow.

“The parents are transporting their kids and some children are walking,” he said in a recent interview in Garden Hill.

“They can’t walk to school, the little kids,” said fellow First Nation councillor and grandfather Victor Little. He said he’s been paying a neighbour $10 a day to drive his grandkids to school three kilometres away.

Kids walking in the community make parents nervous after the unsolved homicide of a child earlier this year, said Morrow.

“We have an issue here after what happened to Teresa Robinson in spring time,” he said.

The 11-year-old girl’s partial remains were found May 11 in a forested area near the fly-in First Nation, 500 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. Teresa was last seen leaving a birthday party around 9 p.m. on May 5. A community search began two days later and RCMP were officially notified Teresa was missing the same day her body was found.

It was initially believed she had been mauled by animals, but RCMP later said while animals may have disturbed the girl’s remains, partial autopsy results indicate animals did not cause her death. Police treated her death as a homicide. School in Garden Hill First Nation was suspended as hundreds of residents searched for the rest of her remains.

Her unsolved homicide hangs over the community, said Coun. Elsie Wood, who was anxious to get the school buses back on the road.

“People are still uneasy about their children walking to school.”

After inquiries to AANDC were made last week, the federal department said it got in touch with the third party manager “and they have indicated that repairs to school buses are being undertaken,” an AANDC regional spokeswoman said in an email.

Chief Arnold Flett said he expects the buses will be back on the road by Monday at the latest.

“Mechanics are in Garden Hill and say the buses should be moving by the end of the week,” he said Wednesday. “If they are not done by the end of the week they will be working through the weekend.”

The sprawling First Nation with close to 4,000 residents encompasses 7,357 hectares of lakes, islands, beautiful scenery and battered dirt roads. The fleet of 12 school buses take a beating and had been driven to Steinbach every winter for servicing and repairs when the winter road was open, said Flett.

He said the third party manager decided not to do that this year to save money and the result was a fleet of school buses that weren’t fixed, safetied and ready to go this fall. The federal government said Garden Hill First Nation received $819,631 from AANDC for salaries, maintenance and replacement costs for the operation of school buses in the community this year.

“It sounds like a lot but when you break it down … that doesn’t amount to a lot,” said Flett.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca