I know from personal experience that we have had public safety officers with the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission called in by either the teachers or the principals where we had a backup of the sewer system. You had, basically, a puncture of a ceiling; they see something seeping out of the walls.
In order to get attention to this problem, it seems like it has to go public, and I don’t think that should be the case. If we as the government are responsible for the quality and the safety of our residents, and more importantly the children in our schools, this should be an assessment process that’s always paramount to ensure the health and well-being of our students and our teachers in the work environment they go to five days a week over seven or eight months of the year.
It’s something I’ve for a fact had to deal with in schools in my riding because of the things I mentioned — backup of a sewer system, where basically you have a punctured or frozen line or something, and it starts leaking out of mechanical equipment in the mechanic room. These things are crucial. They could shut down our infrastructure. We must do whatever we can to find ways to make sure the schools are constructed with safe building materials and, if not, those materials are removed or remediated so we do have healthy schools for our students to go to.