ManitobaA private member’s bill aimed at enhancing the safety of Manitoba children riding in school buses isn’t being received warmly by a safety expert, who contends that mandating seatbelt use could be more detrimental to a child’s safety.2nd private member’s bill would jack up fines for illegally passing stopped busesNathan Liewicki · CBC News · Posted: Dec 03, 2025 10:28 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Progressive Conservative education critic Wayne Ewasko brought forward two private member’s bills Wednesday, one of which could see fines for motorists who pass stopped school buses jump from $670 to up to $2,500 for a first offence. The other pertains to making seatbelts mandatory on all new school buses in the province. (CBC)A private member’s bill aimed at enhancing the safety of Manitoba children riding in school buses isn’t being received warmly by a safety expert, who contends that mandating seatbelt use could be more detrimental to a child’s safety.Wayne Ewasko, education critic for the Opposition Progressive Conservatives, introduced the legislation Wednesday, which would ensure that all newly manufactured school buses are equipped with modern, three-point seatbelts.“It’s all about student safety, Ewasko said. “Making sure that parents and guardians know that when their child is leaving the home and getting on to a school bus, that they’re getting to school safe and sound,” He says the idea, which could become Bill 220: The School Bus Safety Act, circulated after speaking with a bus driver from the Sunrise School Division, which is also where Ewasko taught for 17 years.Wayne Ewasko, education critic for the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives, says his bills prioritize enhancing the safety of students. (Travis Golby/CBC)Earlier this year, Texas passed a law mandating that all school buses in the state have three-point lap and shoulder belts. This came in the wake of nearly 2,500 crashes involving school buses across the state last year, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.“Nobody ever wants to see anything bad happen to their child or to a student, and I think if we can make this happen, why not?” Ewasko said.No Canadian provinces have enacted similar legislation.The Canada Safety Council says over the past decade worth of data it has, there has only been one fatality and fewer than 2,000 injuries nationwide to children riding school buses.There are 2.2 million children riding the school bus every single day across more than 50,000 school buses in Canada, according to Lewis Smith, the council’s manager of national projects.“We believe that school buses are already very effective at keeping their passengers safe, and seatbelts on school buses may have, in a theoretical world, practical use in specific collision instances,” Smith said Wednesday. “Those collision instances are so rare and the operational context adds extra risk factors that we don’t believe make it worth it.”Lewis Smith is the manager of national projects at the Canada Safety Council. (Submitted by Lewis Smith)Although the majority of the council’s research relates to a 1984 Transport Canada study, the federal institution has a task force that looks at various safety measures on school buses that can be implemented.There have been three pilot projects done over the last five years — two in British Columbia and one in Ontario. The findings were mostly pointed to the operational risks that come with the introduction of seatbelts on school buses.“Younger children have a harder time putting them on … the compliance rate is difficult for a bus driver alone to enforce,” Smith said.“And of course … if something were to happen on a bus there, it was demonstrated repeatedly through exercises that it took longer for people who were belted in to evacuate the school bus than it would if they were not.”The pilot projects also found that when seatbelts were installed on a seat for kids in Grade 4 and older, the requirement per seat would drop from three to two students. This would mean fewer students would be allowed on the bus.“Unless we’re introducing a lot more buses into the fleets … we’re tacitly saying to a decent amount of Canadian children that they cannot ride the school bus, and that they’ll need to find an alternate method to get to school,” Smith said.“The issue there lies in the fact that those other alternate methods are far less safe than school buses.”Education Minister Lisa Naylor didn’t speak in favour of the Opposition’s bill to mandate seatbelts in new school buses. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)Manitoba’s transportation minister isn’t sold on seatbelts either.“I do want parents to understand that school buses are one of the safest modes of transportation. There are more than 40 safety regulations, federal safety regulations that apply to school buses,” Lisa Naylor said.PCs want higher fines for passing stopped busesBill 221, which would amend the Highway Traffic Act, was also introduced by Ewasko on Wednesday. The proposed legislation would slap higher fines on drivers convicted multiple times of passing a school bus that is stopped for students entering or exiting the bus.The fine would be up to $2,500 for a first offence, up to $5,000 for a second offence and up to $7,500 for a third violation. The current fine is $670 plus two demerits, but Naylor says legislation is not needed to alter the fine for illegally passing a stopped school bus.She says the transportation department is reviewing all Highway Traffic Act fines to see if they are high enough. That review includes the penalty for passing stopped school buses.“When you see a school bus stop and the arm is down and the lights are on, do not pass the school bus,” Naylor said. “That is the most important thing Manitobans can do to keep kids safe.”WATCH | Manitoba Tories pitch seatbelts on school buses:Manitoba Tories pitch seatbelts on school busesA Progressive Conservative bill to order the installation of seatbelts on all new school buses purchased in Manitoba was panned Wednesday by a safety expert and the NDP government. ABOUT THE AUTHORNathan Liewicki is an online reporter at CBC Manitoba. He was previously nominated for a national RTDNA Award in digital sports reporting. He worked at several newspapers in sports, including the Brandon Sun, the Regina Leader-Post and the Edmonton Journal.With files from Axel Dansereau Macias and Ian Froese
Opposition PCs pitch mandatory seatbelt use on new Manitoba school buses
