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New Kashechewan school has potential to change lives: Charlie Angus

New school to be built on stilts due to ongoing serious flooding risk
2019-08-12 Charlie Angus new Kashechewan school
Charlie Angus at the site of the new Kashechewan school, August 2019. Photo provided

NEWS RELEASE
CHARLIE ANGUS, MP TIMMINS-JAMES BAY
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KASHECHEWAN - A brand new school is going up in Kashechewan that will make a huge difference in the lives of the children in the community. This is a massive shift of gears from the crisis that families faced just one year ago, when their broken down portables were condemned as mould-infested firetraps. At the time, MP Charlie Angus and MPP Guy Bourgouin met with the community and helped mobilize a nation-wide pressure campaign to bring federal and provincial governments to the table.

Angus was in Kashechewan this weekend to watch the progress of the new school. He says the speed with which the federal government has moved to complete this project is extraordinary.

"In the space of a single year we have gone from an education crisis to building a brand new school for the children of Kashechewan. But the truth of the matter is that the government took quick measures because of the massive public outcry about the deplorable conditions children faced."

Internal government documents have shown that the federal government believed it could get away with using the existing, decrepit portables for decades to come. However, all that changed in the face of a public pressure campaign. Bourgouin indicated that Northern communities should not have to wrestle repeatedly for what other students in Ontario take for granted.

"We moved mountains to get that school built for the upcoming academic year. But, let's be honest, the government should not have waited for kids getting sick while attending school. Ontario has some of the highest education standards in the world. It is time the federal government and the province ensure these standards and rights are available throughout the northern communities."

The new school is being built on stilts because the community still faces serious flooding risk. Kashechewan First Nation signed an agreement to build the new school as a temporary solution while plans for a long-term relocation to safer, higher grounds takes place.

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