Concerned Saskatoon parents call out province for half-baked school repairs

The Saskatchewan NDP wants the province to address roof issues at a Saskatoon school that have persisted for months.

In June, parents and administrators toured Saskatchewan MLAs through Monique Rousseau School, highlighting the issues with the building.

“Parents showed them the overcrowded classrooms,” said Carla Beck, Saskatchewan NDP leader. “Parents showed them the lack of temperature control, and as we can see in this photo, parents showed them the gaping hole in the roof.”

In September, nearly 200 concerned parents submitted a petition calling for the province to fix the hole in the roof.

Heavy rains from a storm in early October got into the school, making two classrooms and the library unusable.

One parent is frustrated that the province is listening to parents over the gender pronoun policy, but not to the concerns of parents at Monique Rousseau School.

“They’re so concerned over this issue, but here my children can’t even go to their school,” said Cathlia Ward, a concerned parent of two students at Rousseau.

“So I ask the government to look around and listen to parents and our real stories and our real concerns. Because my concern is that my children don’t have a school they can attend. And that’s the concern of many of these parents today.”

Ward says another problem caused by the flooding is the closure of the daycare centre.

“If you look around the province, it’s really hard to find a daycare spot for your children,” she said. “So when you lose an opportunity for your child to go to daycare, there’s really no opportunity to turn around and find another spot.”

The Sask. Party says under the preventative maintenance and renewal (PMR) Program, work had begun to repair the roof before the recent flooding incident.

“Our ministry has been in touch with the CEF [Conseil D’Ecoles Fransaskoises], and the reality is the roof repair project was underway,” said Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill.

“Unfortunately hit a snag over the weekend and some more water came into the building, but Mr. Speaker we are working actively with CEF to have the project resumed.”

In the legislature, the minister also said plans to build new schools in Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert are underway with the CEF.

“We’ve made commitments as a government to CEF,” said Cockrill. “We have a school under construction right now in Regina. We have schools committed in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.”

The CEF says the new school construction in Saskatoon is overdue, and they are working with the ministry to expedite the project.