Efforts are underway to ensure that backup generators at schools throughout the territory are in good working order, and any problems they have will be fixed.

Highways and Public Works Minister Richard Mostyn made that assurance during question period Tuesday in the legislature. He did so after the NDP brought up last week’s two-day closure of École Émilie-Tremblay.

The Falcon Road school and the adjacent daycare centre were closed last Thursday when the smell of propane was evident outside the school that morning.

Some parents or guardians had already dropped off their children, so school officials had to ask them to return to pick up the youngsters.

It turned out the smell was a result of a nearly empty tank (as the smell of propane becomes stronger as a tank gets close to being empty).

However, in the process of investigating, a problem was discovered with the backup generator that powers the school’s emergency lighting system.

The school remained closed for another day last Friday so temporary emergency lighting could be installed. Students were back in class Monday.

As White pointed out in the legislature yesterday, the government has known for some time there have been been issues with the generator for some time.

“... we understand that Highways and Public Works has had to fix this generator multiple times over the last number of years,” she said.

“Moreover, in March, more than six months ago, replacing the generator was identified as a priority project for the school.

“Did the government discover the issue with the generator just last Thursday, or has the government known for over six months that replacing the emergency generator was a priority?”

Mostyn confirmed the issue is with how the generator was wired to the emergency lighting.

He also noted that upon looking into the matter, it was found the problems were flagged about two years ago.

“That’s not the way this government wants to operate,” he said.

“We take our facilities very seriously. We’re looking at trying to do a proper maintenance schedule and trying to make sure these buildings are maintained.”

He went on to describe “a deficit in the maintenance” of public buildings over a number of years, noting the government is working to address the issue.

“The school issue is one that we take very seriously, and I’m actually looking into making sure that our generators – there is one at Porter Creek that is currently being fixed for exactly the same problem,” he said.

“We’re going to get on that and fix those problems. I have no idea why, in the past, these generators weren’t properly maintained, and I asked the department for a full report on what happened.”

Earlier in the exchange, Mostyn also noted the department is working to ensure issues which resulted in the tank not being filled up are clarified in the future.

“I asked the department for some clarification on this matter, and in fact what has happened is that we transferred responsibility for the fuel refilling of the tank to the French community and, in the process of that transfer, it went to an on-call delivery system as opposed to a regular filling system,” he said.

“There was just a clerical error in that transfer and we’re looking into making sure that those are clarified in the future.”

Neither the Department of Education nor Highways and Public Works staff could provide the Star with further details on the matters by press time this afternoon.