Transport committee  Absolutely. With respect to the 1984 study, that has been joined by significant amounts of research into school bus safety, which has now been published on Transport Canada's website. The 1984 study had conducted and presented the results of a literature survey, as well as discus

Transport committee  You're quite right; we would look at the cumulative amount of research over time. We look at the research stemming from the 1984 report, including the internal research report “Optimizing the Protection of School Bus Passengers”. That was from 2010, and it is now available on the

Transport committee  It was tasked by the Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety in January 2019. The task force was mandated to look at school bus safety measures, or potential school bus safety measures, both inside and outside the school bus. The request or the mand

Transport committee  You've certainly identified a number of the operational considerations that have to be looked at as part of the mandate of the school bus task force. As Kevin noted, and as you noted, the size of the children, accounting for the nature of children in school buses, can range from

Transport committee  Absolutely. One of the key elements for research is to look at the interplay between the compartmentalized seats and the potential safety benefits associated with seat belts. Compartmentalized seats refers to the high-back padded seats in school buses that are spaced very close

Transport committee  I can simply say that the motor vehicle test centre does procure many buses to be able to continue testing and, as Kevin has mentioned, is now in the process of acquiring additional out-of-service buses in order to commence testing on the buses this summer.

Transport committee  As part of the task force, we are looking at school bus safety from quite a comprehensive perspective, with an emphasis on seat belts and other safety measures, both inside and outside the bus. In terms of other potential impacts, we would draw statistics from the national colli

Transport committee  The task force had been instructed to work as a multidisciplinary task force to develop recommendations for consideration by the council of ministers in the spring of 2019.

Transport committee  Yes, absolutely. We do have statistics on that. Over the course of the last decade, there has been one fatality of a bus occupant on a school bus, and that represents a decrease. The statistics going back to 1984 show 23 fatalities of bus occupants on school buses. That shows a s

Transport committee  Under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the federal government and Transport Canada are mandated to establish the Canada motor vehicle safety standards for the vehicle itself. They're intended to regulate to a minimum level of safety. At the same time, there are also guidelines and s

Transport committee  There are a number. There are 18 Canada motor vehicle safety standards that apply broadly to buses, whether they are motor coaches, transit buses or school buses. There are specific additional requirements that have contributed to the exceptionally strong safety record of school

Transport committee  Absolutely.

Transport committee  This goes back to the evidence base and draws from the national collision database, which shows that school buses account for such a small number of accidents in Canada. That being the case, the point that Kevin was making around the interplay between seat belts and the other saf

Transport committee  I would point to a couple of items. In October 2018, the Minister of Transport and his provincial and territorial colleagues released a study on strengthening the safety of vulnerable road users. That included 57 safety measures, a number of which were around infrastructure, a n

Transport committee  The national collision database draws from statistics assembled from each of the provinces and territories. We work closely with the provinces and territories through the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators. We depend very much on that close collaboration to be abl