Ventilation in schools: QS calls for safer measures | Coronavirus

Our plan isn’t perfect, but it will quickly make our schools safer during the winter. […] If we want to keep schools open, the government absolutely must put in place emergency measures.

According to party co-spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the government must quickly implement these emergency measures and stop thinking that opening windows will be enough to ensure quality ventilation in the classrooms. .

Schools in Quebec are old, very old and often have poor ventilation systems. Telling teachers to open windows is not a solution. […] Opening the windows to -20 will not be enough, launched Nadeau-Dubois at a press conference with reporters on Wednesday morning.

The Quebec Solidire estimates that its proposal should cost the Quebec Treasury $ 86 million.

It’s money, commented Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who however believes that this sum should not be considered an expense, but rather an essential investment for the safety of Quebec children and teachers.

When we decided to equip all classrooms with an interactive whiteboard, we did it and it cost a lot more. I don’t understand why we wouldn’t be able to equip all classes with an instrument to measure air quality, for its part, underlined Sherbrooke’s solidarity member, Christine Labrie.

More than one in four COVID-19 outbreaks in Quebec are found in schools, notes Nadeau-Dubois, who indicates that schools in Montreal have become the major factor in community transmission of the virus.

Québec Solidire is not alone in blaming the government for its lack of responsiveness in this matter. The Parti Québécois (PQ) did the same on Wednesday morning asking a clear emergency ventilation plan, which includes the purchase of portable air purifiers.

We heard from Mr Dubé [le ministre de la Santé] let’s say he was setting up a committee that would give him recommendations within a few weeks, as if we hadn’t known for months that winter was coming to Quebec , criticized Joliette member Véronique Hivon.

Christian Dubé admits the mistake

In an interview with 98.5 FM, the Minister of Health admitted that the government should have thought about the ventilation of the schools during the summer, knowing that they would reopen and that a second wave of COVID-19 was expected.

In the priorities we had set with public health, that was not there during the summer. Should it have been? Looking back, you are definitely right, he admitted, after claiming that Coalition futur Quebec had inherited an underfunded educational network.

Christian Dubé added that the World Health Organization (WHO) had only recently warned of the risks of COVID-19 transmission by aerosol. In fact, WHO changed its guidelines on this in July. The Public Health Agency of Canada did this in November.