Councillor ousted from meeting on bus driver shortage after heated exchange

Frustrations over the long-lasting shortage of school bus drivers came to a head during a virtual meeting with the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority (OSTA) earlier this week, resulting in West Carleton-March Coun. Clarke Kelly being ejected.

In a two-minute clip that circulated on X, formally known as Twitter, Kelly can be heard questioning OSTA's general manager Vicky Kyriaco on the lack of solutions to improve student transportation in rural areas such as his.

"To hear that there are solutions for people within the city but not in rural areas, and that you're also framing it as just a privilege and that there won't be any effort made …" Kelly said before trailing off as Kyriaco responded.

Kryiaco called his statement inaccurate.

After overlapping back-and-forth exchanges, Kyriaco removed Kelly from the virtual meeting.

"Councillor Kelly is out of this meeting," she said.

"I hope you're out of a job soon," Kelly responded before exiting.

Councillor stands by comment

CBC asked Kelly, who's also a deputy mayor, if he regretted the comment.

"I would say that it definitely was a heat-of-the-moment thing. I don't necessarily think I regret — I don't regret saying that," he said.

In a statement, OSTA said Kelly interrupted the presentation several times and that he became verbally aggressive and disrespectful. Kelly denied the allegation.

OSTA added it expects elected officials to present themselves in a professional manner and to adhere to the city's code of conduct.

Social media response

Ottawa MPP Goldie Ghamari was one of the people sharing the video.

She wrote she had forwarded the video to Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce over concerns that an elected official had been removed from the meeting.

Ghamari was unable to be reached for comment before deadline.

The OSTA update came at a dire time for school bus transportation across the city. Just days before the school year began, the authority cancelled 300 bus runs serving the capital's two English-language school boards because it couldn't hire enough drivers.

According to OSTA, a route can have multiple runs due to staggered start times of schools. 

Roughly 7,600 students are having to find an alternate way to school. This week, three bus drivers quit due to verbal abuse from angry parents. For every bus driver that quits, OSTA said service for up to 200 students could be affected.

In her presentation, Kyriaco went over next steps to recruit and retain more bus drivers.

As potential short-term solutions, OSTA lists ideas ranging from redesigning and combining routes to reassigning students to OC Transpo.

• Get the news you need without restrictions. Download our free CBC News App.