Tri-board Back Down on Bussing RFP

Jeff Green | Oct 25, 2012

Bussing contracts between Tri-Board Transportation and its 55 contractors for the 2013-2014 school year will be negotiated in the same way they have been in the past.

A number of those contractors launched a law suit charging that the Request For Proposal (RFP) process that Tri-Board had undertaken for awarding contracts for the next five years was unfair and discriminated against the smaller operators. Since those operators have no other potential clients for their school bussing services, the plaintiffs charged that the RFP constituted a breach of duty towards.

The suit also took issue with a condition in the RFP that gave Tri-Board leave to disqualify any operator who has entered into legal proceedings against them.

At the preliminary court hearing, which took place at the Belleville Courthouse last Thursday, October 18, the lawyer for the drivers, Jonathan Lisus, asked Justice Scott of the Ontario Supreme Court for an interlocutory injunction stopping the RFP process while the law suit proceeds.

The lawyer for Tri-Board initially argued that the court should reject the suit outright, but when Justice Scott declined to do so, the court was adjourned and negotiations took place in the judges chambers.

A couple of hours later, Scott came back and said Tri-Board had withdrawn the RFP; that contracts would be negotiated for the 2013-14 year with the existing operators and that the plaintiffs are at liberty to pursue the suit. The matter of who will pay court costs was left to the discretion of the trial judge who ends up presiding over the matter.

Mary Stinson, one of the operators who launched the suit, said that the operators consider this a major victory.

Steve Wowk, the Chief Executive Office of Tri-Board Transportation, said that the decision to withdraw the RFP does not represent the end of the RFP process.

“We decided to withdraw the RFP at this time because if we moved forward to fight the injunction, we would have jeopardised the process, which would have been unfair to the operators who were about to submit bids,” Wowk said.

The deadline for responding to the RFP for 2013-2017 was October 31.

He also said that the provision giving Tri-Board leave to disqualify any bidders that enter into legal proceedings against them is not unusual.

“It is starting to be pretty standard practice” he said, “It does not mean we will disqualify anyone, it just gives us the choice.”

Wowk said that Tri-Board intends to defend the RFP document against any legal challenges and re-submit it in 2014 for the five subsequent years.

However, it will not be Steve Wowk who carries this forward since he will be retiring later this fall.

Mary Stinson said, “Our lawyers told us they did not think we will see another RFP from Tri-Board.”

The News attempted to contact Jonathan Lisus on Tuesday (October 23) but he did not return our call before our publication deadline for this week.