Poor air quality in schools: the time for committees is over, the opposition says

The Legault government must give schools the means to ensure better air quality in schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the opposition claims.

“It’s no longer the time to set up commissions, it’s no longer the time to chat, it’s time to take concrete action,” Québec Solidire Parliamentary Leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois launched Wednesday morning.

This was reacting to a report of magazine where classes tested at the request of a group of doctors revealed high levels of CO₂. This presence of carbon dioxide indicates that the rooms are poorly ventilated, a factor that can favor the spread of the coronavirus, especially when the windows are closed due to the cold.

In many cases, schools in Quebec do not have mechanical ventilation.

In early November, Québec Solidire proposed equipping all classes with CO detectors.₂ and air purifiers. Cost of account: $ 86 million. “The 86 million dollars was the maximum amount if we had distributed the devices everywhere, but in fact, if there are well-ventilated classrooms and then where you don’t need, well, a simple CO detector.₂ to measure the quality of the ventilation, it will be enough ”, now specifies Nadeau-Dubois.

In the Liberal Party of Quebec, leader Dominique Anglade also urges the government to move forward. Already last July, international scientists raised the alarm and the World Health Organization acknowledged that poor ventilation could contribute to the spread of COVID-19.

“We could have already sorted things out in August,” says M^myself Anglade. Last week and the week before, there were CAQ members who said: We don’t really know if there is contamination in the air, it’s not fully proven yet. Look, I mean, the scientific data is there, we have to go to the stage where we act. ”

The péquiste Véronique Hivon believes that simple and economical solutions can be put in place, pending the installation of better ventilation systems.

“One measure that seems obvious to us, for months, is to do half lessons for students in secondary 3, 4 and 5, rather than for full days of alternating lessons,” he said. For the moment, the whole group is in class every other day.

Faced with the many calls for action in recent weeks, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, has created a committee that should advise him on the ventilation of the classrooms. Minister Dubé’s office, like that of his education colleague, had not reacted to our report when it was time to publish it.