Snowstorm cancels school buses, closes schools Monday
CBC News | Posted: January 26, 2026 11:14 AM | Last Updated: Just now
Ottawa is only part of eastern Ontario with school buses running
School bus authorities in Ottawa are the only ones who have elected to run school buses Monday after a snowy night.
Ottawa Student Transportation (OSTA) and the Consortium de transport scolaire d'Ottawa (CTSO) are the two agencies with buses. All others in eastern Ontario are keeping their buses parked.
The Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board and the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board have closed schools Monday.
The Limestone District School Board has closed all but four schools: the North Addington Education Centre, the Granite Ridge Education Centre, Land O’Lakes Public School and Clarendon Central Public School.
Other schools are generally open. Check with your school or board for information on what happens when there are no buses, including around high school exams.
The Renfrew County and Upper Canada public boards have moved all exams scheduled for Monday to Tuesday, for example.
Queen's University has cancelled in-person classes Monday morning, saying instructors will let students know if they will be held remotely or not at all.
Buses are running in western Quebec.
40+ cm of snow in Trenton
Much of eastern Ontario remains under snowfall warnings, which are expected to end by noon.
The Belleville area will have more than 40 centimetres of snow by storm's end, communities to its east could see up to 25 and the Ottawa area could get up to 15.
Kingston and the surrounding area has had school buses cancelled six of the last eight school days. CFB Trenton's weather station has seen about 94 cm of snow since Jan. 15, 42 of those coming in this storm as of 5 a.m.
Environment Canada said Belleville had a total of 34 cm, Kingston 15 and Ottawa 10 by 5 a.m. Monday.
There are no weather alerts for western Quebec, except for Gatineau sharing Ottawa's warning.
City changes
Kingston, Belleville and Quinte West have each declared a significant weather event, meaning they may not be able to keep up with snow-clearing standards.
Kingston has extended its Artillery Park Aquatics Centre warming centre until Thursday morning.
Ottawa has a parking ban for most vehicles on most streets from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday.
Gatineau has an overnight parking ban from midnight to 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Check with your municipality to see if the weather is forcing any changes there.