Dear Editor,
Last year there was a full, double-sided advertisement from the 91原创 MLAs, announcing funding of $151.5 million since 2012 for 91原创 schools, including funding for new schools, and upgrades for many schools (like seats for more students, lighting and seismic upgrades).
What a welcome and necessary contribution to improve the education of schoolchildren.
So why, with all these new upgrades, are two schools in 91原创 being severely degraded with the throughput of a highway-accessible major arterial truck route running right through their school catchments, and not just through the catchment, but directly next to the schools themselves?
In particular, I and other parents, are concerned about the schoolchildren at Ecole des Voyageurs, which is located directly on the southeast corner of 216th Street and 88th Avenue and is less than one kilometre north of the proposed interchange to/from which regional truck traffic is expected to flow.
Imagine the pollution and noise to which these children will be exposed to with 1,400 trucks per day going past their school?
Moreover, a simple chain link fence does not guarantee safety, so there is also a huge concern with truck traffic and kids鈥� safety. It is incomprehensible to think that heavy commercial through-traffic would be prioritized over the safety, health and wellbeing of children in this residential area.
Francophone schools, like Ecole des Voyageurs, bring diversity and cultural enrichment to their communities. They are just as valuable as their English language counterparts. It is unjust to marginalize any school environment with a highway accessible truck route.
We need to keep the non-local commercial truck traffic off of 216th Street. How will we ever move to the equal treatment of all schools if we do this to the 茅cole?
Marina MacLean, Walnut Grove
