Prairie South School Division has hired a new driver education company to train students after the previous business quit unexpectedly in the summer because of provincial politics.
The division issued two tenders worth $431,730 between Sept. 1 and 26, according to a report presented during the recent board meeting.
Suncorp Valuations won a tender for $150,000 over five years to provide insurance appraisals. Meanwhile, the division issued a tender worth $281,730 for driver education training for this year, with Moose Jaw-based company Miles Ahead receiving $167,700 to train local high school students and Regina-based Stepping Stones Driving School receiving $114,030 to train rural youths.
Administration told trustees that the division office had to quickly issue a tender for driver education in late August after Regina-based Wascana Driving School — which was training the entire division — quit because main instructor Noor Burki won the Regina-Coronation Park byelection for the NDP.
Although Wascana Driving School is no longer working, its remaining instructors — minus Burki — started a company called Stepping Stones Driving School and have continued operations that way.
Meanwhile, the new contracts are based on the number of students projected to take the course.
Prairie South has never had a Moose Jaw-based driver education company train any students in the southern region and has relied on instructors from Gravelbourg and Pangman/Ogema, administration said. Meanwhile, a Prince Albert-based company has trained students in the northern region.
“When we tender it out, we look at the references. We (also) have a point system that we award it on,” explained Derrick Huschi, superintendent of operations. “In a lot of cases, for our rurals, we don’t have a lot of options. In the City of Moose Jaw, we do, so we based it on what is best.”
Wascana Driving School held the contract with Prairie South for three years but resigned one year early after Burki successfully won the byelection.
“So we were scrambling to put these (tenders) out. We feel we got very good driver training, considering we put this together in 17 days,” Huschi said.
Sometimes, the division will receive four applications from driving schools to handle the rural areas, while it will receive more from those that want to teach students in Moose Jaw because of the volume of youths, he continued.
Huschi noted that this is a one-year contract because the division was scrambling to fill the void and wasn’t sure how the situation would pan out since school had already started.
Burki was supposed to start training southern students on Sept. 1, but the division office was informed on Aug. 28 that that wouldn’t happen. This forced PSSD to cancel all training that was scheduled to start at the beginning of September.
The division office was concerned about finishing this year’s driver training and catching up, Huschi added. Once that occurs, administration will look at awarding a multi-year contract in January.
The next PSSD board meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 7.
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