First You Have to Know How to Identify the Yellow School Bus
Apparently, this very important lesson was lost on Roland Hache, the Minister of Education and Denis Landry, the Minister of Transportation. It's important, because the Department of Education and Transportation have put all season tires on the front wheels of the new 21 passenger Multi Function Activity Vehicle because someone who thinks they know better than Transport Canada has decided it's a "yellow school bus".
So, without any further adeiu, we thought we'd give the Ministers and their senior advisors as well as their communications directors a lesson in bus recognition.
Once more, here is a yellow school bus. We have been told by the experts with whom we have consulted, including Transport Canada's Nigel Mortimer and many others, that it's OK to have mixed tires on a yellow school bus.
Here is the BHS's 21 passenger MFAV. We have been told by the experts that we have consulted with including Nigel Mortimer of Transport Canada and many others that it's NOT ok to have mixed tires on a MFAV. These vehicles are not "buses". They are completely different and require a different tire configuration of winter tires on all four wheels.
We repeat: Bathurst High School's 21 passenger MFAV is NOT a "bus". Therefore, if it is not a bus, why does the Minister of Education Roland Hache and the Minister of Transportation Denis Landry call it a "bus" and why are they relying on "expert opinion" that says it's OK for a bus to have mixed tires when we are not talking about a bus? We are talking about a 21 passenger MFAV and they know it.
It's deliberately misleading and designed to have everyone so confused that nobody knows who to believe. In our view, it's just another good reason why we need a scientific research study done by experts in the field who know what they are talking about.
It's incredible that the safety of our children is left up to people like Roland Hache and Denis Landry, two politicians who, along with a bunch of bureacrats who don't know what they're doing, will be deciding our children's fate every time they get on one of these vehicles.So will someone please tell Valerie Kilfoil and Andrew Holland, Communications Director for the Department of Transportation, that the 21 passenger MFAV is not a "bus" so that their Ministers can start calling the MFAV what it really is and develop winter tire policies based on scientific research that apply to MFAVs and not to yellow school buses?
