Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak to you about the school playground in Fort Simpson. This fall, at the start of the school year, many parents and children at Bompas Elementary and Thomas Simpson School in Fort Simpson were concerned about the state of the schools’ playground. It seems that, especially over the summer months, the playground was used by drinkers, marked up by graffiti artists, and generally vandalized. There were broken liquor bottles on the ground and rude pictures marked on the buildings and equipment. There was litter and garbage everywhere.
Some parents and children helped to clean the playground. Local school staff and Public Works and Services staff have made a good effort to get the playground clean and ready for the start of the school year. Public Works and Services and the RCMP are looking at ways to increase the security of the playground so that it is not used for drinking parties in the summer.
The parents group met with myself and Mr. Sean Whelly, the mayor of Fort Simpson, and detailed their dissatisfaction with the state of the school grounds. I did take the time to inform the Minister of Education and the Minister of Public Works and Services for immediate action to address these concerns. I’m glad that they were both responsive and corrected some items, as well as a big thanks to the staff of the school and parents who saw a need and made the effort to respond.
The question remains: How could we have let our school playground and facilities become this littered and in a mess? There must be a plan in place to ensure that this never happens again. The community takes pride in our school; our government must recognize this as well. At the appropriate time I will raise this issue with our Ministers.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
