Seine River SD aims to increase safety for students walking to school

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This article was published 01/02/2025 (418 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seine River School Division (SRSD) wants to work with municipalities and the province to make it safer for its students to walk to school.

Board Chair Wendy Bloomfield said pedestrian safety got more attention from trustees after the start of the school year, the first with a new $500 per household busing fee for students within 1.6 kilometres of their school who are not paid to be bused by the province.

The fee is part of SRSD’s effort to climb out of an unexpected deficit discovered in the summer of 2023.

“This all really came to a head last fall because of the change in our transportation policy regarding students we weren’t getting the grant for. Parents can still pay for it but what came to light was the fact that there was a lot of students that were living inside the transportable distance, when they start walking to school they’re not necessarily walking in a safe way,” explained Bloomfield.

“That brought to light a situation that we really hadn’t understood until you’re applying it.”

She said that the division has been working through issues as they came up with families who brought their concerns.

“But we did as a board take the position that we wanted to write to government to flag this as a concern. So we wrote to the minister of education, transportation and infrastructure, and municipal relations,” said Bloomfield.

“We did receive a kind of generic response from the minister of education.”

But staff from the department in charge of transportation and infrastructure also reached out. The previous administration before new superintendent Colin Campbell had also started contacting municipalities about what they can do.

Those concerns included sidewalks, room for students who wait for the bus, and clearing snow where there are sidewalks.

Campbell said there was a drop-off point that was a concern at the start of the year that was handled by SRSD’s transportation department.

“They rectified that problem right away,” he said.

Campbell explained that when new bus stops are sought, they often end up where town mailboxes are placed.

“That tends to be a spot where there’s enough room and enough space to have students dismount from the bus and then have enough runway to clear the road either staying on that side or having to cross,” said Campbell.

Those new stops are often in new developments, the plans of which are often sent to SRSD for feedback before construction.

“The other thing as a board we’ve done since is when we get development plans come to the board for feedback, we used to just really look with a lens of can our buses go in this community and can they turn around safely. Well now we’re also adding that second lens of if students are walking to school, where are they walking and are they able to walk safely,” said Bloomfield.

Collaborating on student safety

The topic came up at the SRSD board meeting in December after La Broquerie submitted its next subdivision for feedback.

That is where trustees agreed to tell municipalities that they need to provide safe access to the schools when new developments are within or close to 1.6 kilometres of a school.

That meeting was interim superintendent Reg Klassen’s last meeting. Campbell was also in attendance as he was transitioning into the job. Klassen told the board feedback for new housing will always include safety and access comments.

“Anytime we respond to any of these kinds of things, they’ll get this from us,” said Klassen.

The outgoing interim superintendent added that he had already started to reach out to RMs. Klassen told the board that Mayor Armand Poirier of the RM of Taché was open to the idea of creating a path in Lorette for students and other residents to walk from the Co-op to the new development on its west side.

Taché has developed an active transportation plan and earlier this month presented a plan for developing Dawson Road in Lorette that included a focus on pedestrian access.

“I asked if that would be ready to go this fall and that was a little quick. I think they have some property owners they had to negotiate with,” said Klassen.

Campbell said he will continue the collaboration effort in the near future. His plan is to ask principals what they are hearing from families around student safety getting to school, and use that information when meeting municipal and provincial leaders.

“I will reach out to the municipalities and ask how can I be of help and support in the initiative to work with the Province collaboratively to get good sidewalks and get kids to school safely. I don’t have a magic wand and I don’t think anyone does. This comes down to collaboration,” said Campbell.

Most of the communities in SRSD are centred around provincial roads and highways. That means making improvements is the responsibility of the province.

Even if a municipality wants to pay for and build something like a crosswalk itself, it needs the province’s permission. That was the case with new crosswalks near schools in Richer and La Broquerie.

Deputy Mayor Larry Tétrault said his RM of La Broquerie has pedestrian safety top of mind.

“We’re one of the most innovative municipalities when it comes to walking trails. We’ve invested a lot of money for safety, and we want to take people away from the streets into safe walking trails… There’s a five-kilometre one around the golf course, and it has removed a lot of people from walking in the streets,” said Tétrault.

“Most subdivisions we have sidewalks and we always improve them. Safety is very important to us.”

The town of La Broquerie has two Seine River schools and one DSFM French school.

“In town here we have over 1,000 students, and it’s very well planned so that there is less danger,” said Tétrault.

“Even in the rural we forced them to do a paved trail in the new subdivisions.”

Ritchot snow clearing

Snow clearing in Ile des Chenes was of particular concern for some parents.

The RM of Ritchot’s communications person explained their snow clearing plan. It has a list of three priority areas, and the streets and roads within school zones are first priority. Sidewalks and pathways in all towns are on the second priority list.

“Snow clearing operations begin when snowfall stops or is expected to stop shortly. Equipment and employees are dispatched upon review of meteorological forecasts and other factors such as wind velocity and direction. A snow event requiring a full operation is when snowfall is between 10-20 cm. A major snow event is classified as more than 20 cm of snowfall or more than 20cm of snow accumulation. A blizzard event is any amount of snow fall with high winds creating drifts and plugging sections of roads/streets and sidewalks/pathways,” wrote the Ritchot spokesperson.

“Sanding of the sidewalks/pathways are done as needed and will commence only when the snow clearing is completed. The sidewalk equipment is sent out regularly with our road fleet, and all snow works are generally completed within the first day,” she concluded.