Transport Canada is proposing new guidelines for seatbelt use on school buses. The regulations aim to create specific guidelines for school bus operators who want to install seatbelts.

Some parents hope the rules go a step further.

When Harry Mogatas puts his three-year-old son Nico in the van, he has to make sure he's safely secured inside the vehicle. Mogatas doesn't understand why kids riding school buses aren't required to follow the same rules.

"It's still a moving vehicle,” said Mogatas. “It's still public transport, so I don't know why it's not mandatory."

There are no requirements in Canada for seatbelts on any size school bus.

Transport Canada is proposing new guidelines that would regulate the installation of seatbelts on schools buses, should school bus operators voluntarily decide to put them in.

The rules would require shoulder restraints, as opposed to lap-only seatbelts.

Parent Omar Muse would like to see the rules taken a step further. He thinks seatbelts should be mandatory on school buses.

"Anything can happen, a crash can happen," said Muse.

It doesn't appear Transport Canada will require seatbelts to be put on school buses anytime soon.

The agency said school buses are already the safest way to transport children with high-back padded seats designed to protect riders in the event of a collision, without the need for seatbelts.

Transport Canada also said there hasn't been a school-age fatality on a school bus in Canada since 2008, and that kids are 16 times more likely to be killed walking to school when compared with taking a school bus.

Manitoba School Boards Association risk manager Darren Thomas said the issue has been raised in the past, typically any time there's an incident involving a school bus, the question of making seatbelts mandatory comes up, but so far hasn’t resulted in any changes in Manitoba.

"Due to the way school buses are designed, they already reduce a lot of the impact, already," said Thomas.

There are also questions about who would be responsible for buckling up the occupants of a school bus and the cost of installation, said Thomas.

Mogatas thinks those details could be worked out if seatbelts are ever made mandatory.

The province said it’s not looking at making seatbelts mandatory on buses. In an email to CTV News it said Manitoba is a member of the CSA Technical Standards Committee for school buses; the group is awaiting information from Transport Canada which would demonstrate that seatbelts would make school buses safer.

According to the province, mandatory seatbelts use would come with challenges, such as ensuring students have properly fitted seatbelts and ensuring that riders would use them properly.

There are also concerns about how fast students would be able to get off the bus in the event of an emergency if they are belted in.

The province said seatbelts may reduce seating capacity on buses and that retrofitting older buses would also be very costly.

Outfitting new school buses with seatbelts would mean the purchase price would rise by about $5,000 per bus, the province said.