Sask. Party ignored parents calling for repair to hole in school roof, NDP says

CBC
Tue, October 10, 2023 

Official opposition critic for education Matt Love stands next to leader Carla Beck at a news conference for the roof hole at Monique-Rousseau elementary school on Tuesday. (Albert Couillard/CBC - image credit)

For months, a gaping hole in the roof of Pavillon Monique-Rousseau — an elementary school in Saskatoon — has caused problems.

The hole has existed since the 2022-2023 school year, official opposition leader Carla Beck said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

On June 6, two Saskatchewan Party MLAs were given a tour from parents and teachers to show them the hole.

Then in September, about 200 parents signed and sent a petition to the province. According to the NDP, the letter asked for assistance in fixing the hole in the roof. No repairs were done at the time of this request.

Classes were cancelled last week because of flooding, which left two classrooms and the library unusable.

Saskatchewan Party MLA Gordon Wyant is pictured standing below a hole in the ceiling of Monique-Rousseau elementary school. (Submitted by NDP)

Repairs are now underway at the school, but Matt Love, the official opposition critic for education who joined Beck outside Monique-Rousseau, said the Saskatchewan Party shouldn't get to "pick and choose" which parents to listen to — speaking in reference to the recent pronoun policy controversy.

"This government says that they care about parental engagement, but they have been ignoring the hundreds of parents here at this school and they've been ignoring that gaping hole in the wall since June," said Love.

Previously, Premier Scott Moe stated that the government's pronoun policy came after consulting "multiple" parents, teachers and organizations. Ultimately a Regina Court of King's Bench Justice disagreed with that, saying there was no indication of the described consultation.

Moe has since said he intends to invoke the notwithstanding clause to push the policy through.

Cathlia Ward is a parent to two children who attend Monique-Rousseau, and she said the flooding also affects the parents because they have to make daycare arrangements, which she says are hard to get. She said parents also need to take time off of work.

"In our family we don't have terribly flexible jobs, so we don't really have that work from home option," said Ward.

Cathlia Ward is a parent to two children who attend Monique-Rousseau and spoke at the news conference on Tuesday morning. (Albert Couillard/CBC)

Ward said she's asking the government to listen to parents' "real" concerns.

"You just look around and you're so confused by this government, they want to listen to parents, we're telling you what we need, we need the gaping hole in our roof fixed."

Chelsey Balaski, the director of correspondence for the ministry of education, said the Conseil des écoles fransaskoises has the authority to allocate and prioritize where money is spent, such as the hole at Monique-Rousseau.

"The Conseil des écoles fransaskoises (CÉF) has access to annual funding from the Ministry of Education through the Preventative Maintenance and Renewal Program (PMR) to address planned infrastructure maintenance renewal projects and costs for all schools," Balaski said in an email statement.

CÉF was not immediately able to provide a comment on this.