Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Monday 4 December 2006

MEMBERS’ STATEMENTS

School facilities

Ms. Lisa MacLeod (Nepean–Carleton): The time for a new public secondary school in south Nepean is now. We are the fastest-growing community in this province, with the highest birth rate in all of Canada. The people who live there come from all walks of life and from every corner of Canada. Many of our residents are new Canadians and we are so proud of that in the national capital.

Recently, thousands of new homes have been built there, something that people in other parts of Ottawa and Ontario may not know. Presently, parents who have children attending three south Nepean elementary schools—Berrigan, Farley Mowat and Adrienne Clarkson—must choose between sending their children on a school bus to another school zone or to another school board.

The new public high school would educate close to 1,200 students. That is why community leaders like former trustee Norm MacDonald and current trustees Alex Getty and Greg Laws are fighting for this school. So too have all the council co-chairs, lead by Scott Towaij, and assisted by Wendy Giles and Sylvia Zanetti Kamal.

Our local city councillors, parents and teachers are supportive, and all three community papers—the Barrhaven Independent and Derek Dunn, Nepean This Week and Malcolm MacMillan, and the EMC News, Erin Kelly—have all delivered by promoting articles on this issue.

By next Thursday I will have delivered some 1,200 individual signatures on a community-driven petition in this Legislature calling on the province and the board to build this public school: one signature for each student who would attend this school.The time to build is now, as I’ve said. Those 1,200 students deserve to be educated in the board of their choice within their own zone.