Manitoba tech company to create camera systems for school buses

A Manitoba company is developing the camera systems that will eventually be on every school bus in the country.

MJG Technologies says it plans to install four cameras on the exterior of the buses that can see 50 feet in every direction, ­plus a blind spot monitoring system that will beep whenever it detects motion in a driver’s blind spot when the vehicle is travelling at low speed.

Canada will be the first country in the world to require “perimeter visibility systems,” which will be on all new buses as of November 2027. The goal is to give the driver a better view of any children around the bus before they drive off.

“It allows you to have a bird’s eye view of about 50 feet above the school bus looking down — all the way down to the ground, right to the sides of the bus and all the way out,” says Maurice Gregoire, president of MJG Technologies. “And you can see as the people are moving, vehicles are moving, what have you.”

Gregoire says the company is in talks with Transport Canada on how the systems will roll out. They could start retrofitting old buses as early as this summer, but they’ll need to set up supply chains to get the tech onto new vehicles.

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“We’re starting to get into conversations with the bus manufacturers down in the States. And what could happen is that all buses coming into Canada would have the CrossSafe 360 system built into the bus at the point of manufacture.”

It’s unclear if potential Canada-U.S. tariffs will throw a wrench into those plans. If they do, Gregoire says they may have to work with the suppliers in Canada to install the system after the vehicles are brought in.

He adds they’ll also be working with local school divisions to test out the system before it’s released widely.

“If it can pass a winter road, especially in rural Manitoba, it’s pretty much good anywhere in Canada,” Gregoire says.