Opposition Education Critic and MHA for the District of Port De Grave, Roland Butler, says that education minister Joan Burke is continuing to neglect her responsibility to ensure that all schools in this province are safe  learning environments.  

"I am disappointed in her continual refusal to carry out a comprehensive review of all schools throughout the province,@ says Butler.  AGiven the number of incidents of mould in schools which have come to our attention in the last few months, parents, staff and children need to be reassured that they are not exposed to unsafe conditions.  The only way to do this is to conduct precautionary testing which would identify health and safety problems at schools and then make the findings public." 

The issue of a review has been raised a number of times by the Liberal Education critic in the media and in House of Assembly, but the education minister has refused to conduct such a safety review.  Media reports in recent days also reaffirms the minister=s position that there is no need to test air quality in all schools at this time.  AUnbelievably, she continues to blame the former administration for the problems despite the fact that this government is in the fourth year of their mandate. The minister continues to target leaky roofs as contributing to the mould problem, but fails to acknowledge these structures  have been leaking for four years under their watch.@ 

Yet another mould problem in a school in St. John=s was reported in the news today, which once again highlights  just how pervasive this problem may be.  AI think the main reason the minister is refusing to conduct the safety evaluation and make it public is that even more serious problems may be exposed.  Avoiding such a serious health and safety issue is highly irresponsible for a minister.    She has shown herself to be more interested in political damage control than in addressing the serious problems which exposes school occupants to toxic and unhealthy pollutants.   

The Liberal critic is also calling on parents, staff and students to speak out publically on this issue and to demand that a comprehensive review of mould and maintenance problems at schools be conducted. A Other than the education minister, everyone seems to be aware that poor air quality can affect children's desire and ability to learn and can cause them to miss valuable days of school. Furthermore, as we have seen in recent cases, poor indoor air quality can contribute to the closing of schools, create liability problems and strain relationships among parents, teachers, and the school boards. Clearly, the minister and this government needs to be shamed into some action on this serious issue.@