April 24th, 2026

On Monday, April 20, 2026, the Region of Waterloo shared an update about a potential labour disruption involving Grand River Transit (GRT). Unifor, Local 4304, the union representing many GRT staff, will be in a legal position to strike as early as Friday, May 1, 2026.

In the event of a labour disruption, conventional bus and MobilityPLUS services will not operate, but ION train service will continue. This may cause disruption for students and families who use GRT to travel to and from school.

Regular school bus operations (yellow buses, vans and taxi services) will continue to operate as normal and all schools will be open. Student Transportation Services of Waterloo Region will continue to provide updates to its transportation services for Waterloo Region District School Board students.

We encourage students and families who may be impacted to plan for alternate means of transportation as needed. Students who are assigned public bus passes by their school and who are absent as a result of the labour disruption will be marked absent using a code that will ensure this will not count towards their report card.

If you or your child are a regular transit user, we encourage you to monitor this situation. Please refer to the GRT for further updates on the status of transit services. For updates, you can: