Diverse group of Albertans calls on Ottawa to directly fund school COVID-19 protection – CBC

Authors of letter say they’ve lost confidence in Kenney government

Aug 11, 2021

Two dozen medical doctors, scientists, union members and university professors in Alberta sent a two-page letter that asks Ottawa to sidestep the provincial government and directly fund provincial classrooms to make them safer from COVID-19 transmission.

But the urgent appeal, made directly to the prime minister from Albertans concerned about children’s return to school next month, does not seem like it will result in any dramatic change.

“Many of us are very concerned that there’s going to be a lot of transmission among children as they return to classrooms, particularly with this very infectious delta variant,” one of the authors, PhD candidate Conor Ruzycki, told CBC News. “I think we’re getting signals of this happening down in the United States.”

The letter asks for $65 million to provide a HEPA filtration unit in every elementary classroom and $9.6 million to provide KN95-type masks to children in kindergarten to grade six. Another $6 million is requested to equip all classrooms with CO2 monitors.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/diverse-group-of-albertans-calls-on-ottawa-to-directly-fund-school-covid-19-protection-1.6136833

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