The Chinook School Division will be hiring more bus drivers after a decision to retain the right to provide transportation for nine bus routes.

The nine routes were apart of 10 that provided transportation for four per cent of the school divisions students. Local contractors previously operated the routes. 

Rod Quintin, the CFO for the Chinook School Division, said that the decision came down to them being able to save money on a transportation operating budget that currently sits at a $800,000 deficit.

"We would initially use some of our spare fleet for buses, and then we would pay drivers on our salary rates," he said. "So in terms of cost, we anticipate a cost saving over the three years that would roughly amount to $200,000 to $250,000 a year."

Quintin added that this is something the board has wanted to get around to for some time.

"It's was really an area that we wanted to try and address, but really we're so busy trying to get other areas of our transportation function aligned with what we'd like to see," he said. "Until we got passed the point last year of having our city busing deliver by our forces we couldn't really take a look at that. It's just the final steps in reorganizing our transportation function."

The bus routes will cover the seven routes in the Leader area, one in the Cabri, and one in the Burstall area.

Only one bus route will see local contractor used and will be in the Shaunavon area where a local contractor will be providing four students with transportation.