Safety group will go to court if government doesn’t improve air quality in Ontario schools
Ontario School Safety (OSS) is considering legal action to force the provincial government to improve indoor air quality in schools and on school buses. They issued the threat after claiming multiple attempts to discuss this issue directly with the Ford government were ignored, the group said.
“Ontario’s provincial government has failed its general duty to provide a safe, stable, and healthy working environment for children and youth, their caregivers, the education system and all Ontario communities,” reads the statement from OSS, which advocates for safe, in-person education for all students in Ontario.
Concerns about indoor air quality at schools rose to the fore during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and were reinforced earlier this month when wildfires briefly filled Ontario skies with dangerous amounts of smoke.
Poor indoor air quality results in the spread of airborne illnesses like COVID-19, and failing to provide clean air in schools and on buses goes against provincial Occupational Health and Safety recommendations, the statement said.
Canada’s National Observer reached out to Ontario’s Ministry of Education for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
But a statement from 2021 on the ministry’s website reads that every year, Ontario invests $1.4 billion to maintain and renew school facilities, including HVAC systems and windows, to ensure all schools have improved air ventilation and that the ministry deployed over 70,000 ventilation devices.
OSS believes not enough has been done. It has launched a GoFundMe campaign and has already raised more than $40,000 of its $75,000 target to pay for a legal challenge if the government doesn’t act. Students and education workers attending schools in-person spend several hours a day indoors, for almost 200 days per year, which makes the air quality of the buildings they are in incredibly important, the group said.
Source: