Dear editor:
As a school bus driver of over 15 years and a resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake for 51 years, I have never experienced such an incident in the Town of Niagara-on- the-Lake as I did on Monday, Sept. 23.
For many years I have been and still am one of the four bus drivers to take school children from St. Michael Catholic Elementary School to St. Vincent de Paul Church on Picton Street. As I have always done over the past 12 years, I again parked at the side of the church on Wellington Street to drop off the students and then returned at 11 a.m. to pick them up again.
I am always on time for the 11 o’clock pickup and I parked in the same place for the pickup. This Monday, however, the bylaw officer came by in the Town of NOTL van, as it was raining, and told me to move — and may I also mention that we have some very rude bylaw officers with an attitude!
I wish to mention that on this particular rainy Monday, there were hardly any tourists in town. It was a quiet Monday in town. When I asked where then could I park to pick up these students, I was told to park at Fort George. I told the bylaw officer that I could not expect the kindergarten students to walk to Fort George in the rain and for this reason I would not move. Some of these little students are as young as three and four years old and I just couldn’t let them walk to Fort George in the rain. Safety for the students on my bus will always come first.
Of course, I was given a parking ticket of $50 which my employer will have to pay. After I finished dropping off the students, I decided to check out the parking for school busses at Fort George and to my surprise, I was told that I would have to pay $55 for parking even if it was just to pick up the students who were finishing at St. Vincent de Paul Church. I wouldn’t be parked there for more than 15 minutes or so and it would still cost $55.
What is happening to our town? Is it just money that the town is after — is there no longer any consideration for students who are attending a service at a church? Is there no leeway for situations such as this? The church services at St. Vincent de Paul are an important part of the Niagara Catholic District School Board curriculum and we take these students to church several times during the school year.
Unfortunately, I have had other issues with parking with a bus — for just trying to pick up tourists from hotels and taking them to wineries — and have been given a parking ticket. How does the town expect us bus drivers to do our job of transporting tourists from hotels to wineries when we aren’t even allowed to park close to the hotel to pick up these tourists?
And we are forced to always be on the lookout for bylaw officers, who seem to be waiting for us and are so anxious to give us tickets. However, that is another issue for another time. Â
I have sent a similar letter to the Lord Mayor and all the NOTL Councillors.
Barry Wilding
Bus driver