Smith Talks New Schools

Nipissing MPP Monique Smith asked the Hon. Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Education Monday, November 20th about what the process is when dealing with building new schools.

The discussion is contained in the excerpt of Hansard.

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MPP Smith to Minister Wynne


Monique Smith, (L): The McGuinty government is clearly reaching every student across Ontario, from Oakville to my riding of Nipissing. You recently came to the great riding of Nipissing and during that time we visited four different school boards four different schools. We visited the school in Esterville. St. Therese's and the one in North Bay. The tour was a tremendous success and the feedback has been great all were impressed by your commitment and knowledge of the field. The investments the MLG is making in my riding are making a different in boosting student achievement. Minister will you remember the secondary school one of the schools we visited. There's been much talk of late because it is as you know, on the prohibitive to repair list. This school services the southern part of my riding and offers many student success initiatives and has a strong focus on the technical field. Can you tell this house some of the investments we are making with respect to new schools and what the process is with dealing with some of our old are schools?


Hon. Kathleen Wynne (L): It's easy to be enthusiastic about public education in this province when you see arts programs like Mr. Peter Camani’s classroom and the cooking class from Almaguin Highlands Secondary School. They are fantastic teachers doing a great job. Mr. Speaker, the issue of prohibitive to repair is the one I want to address because it speaks to the issue in Nipissing. The age of some of the facilities and repairs have meant that there are schools where it would cost more to replace the school than to build a new one. And there is a list of schools that has been prepared across the province. What the ministry is doing right now, is talking to the boards around the province to make sure that the schools that should be on that list, are, indeed on that list. And what we'll do is once that list has been vetted and we understand that the correct schools are on the list, then the boards will be able to apply for funding to retire schools on the list. And they will be able to replace the school in the same site or nearby, replace several schools with one new school or close the school and expand into new facilities and that process is underway now.

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