Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano responded to Twitter comments by Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce with an opening salvo after Lecce tweeted that the province will 'do whatever it takes to keep kids safe.'
"You can pretend you are sending hand sending sanitizer as much as you like, but can’t pretend you are doing ‘whatever it takes to keep kids safe’," tweeted the mayor on Saturday.
Mayor Provenzano said he believes our schools are not prepared for students to safely return to class in less than two weeks and its not for lack of trying by our school boards.
The province isn't willing to pony up for the tools school boards need to keep kids safe, he says.
Without funding for additional teachers and tech, class sizes can't be reduced and children can't physically distance enough to be safe, Provenzano said.
You can pretend you are sending hand sending sanitizer as much as you like, but can’t pretend you are doing ‘whatever it takes to keep kids safe’. The first pretension is immaterial, the second has consequences. (Thread) (1 of 3)
— Mayor Provenzano (@MayorProvenzano) August 29, 2020
Provenzano was responding to a tweet from Lecce in which Lecce said he had personally visited a warehouse where PPEs, hand sanitizers and cleaning supplies are stored.
Personally toured and helped send off the last remaining shipment of PPE, hand sanitizer, and cleaning supplies so that *every* school in Ontario is fully stocked.
— Stephen Lecce (@Sflecce) August 29, 2020
We will do whatever it takes to keep kids safe. pic.twitter.com/Jss7j9uH4H
Provenzano went on to explain his concerns with another shot at the education minister and his party leader, Premier Doug Ford.
In @CitySSM alone, the Public/Catholic boards need 60+ additional teachers. They collectively received funding for three additional teachers, no funding for the new tech infrastructure required, no funding to effectively reduce class sizes and/or ensure kids have more space. (2)
— Mayor Provenzano (@MayorProvenzano) August 29, 2020
At time of publication, Mayor Provenzano's tweet had 118 retweets and comments as well as 316 Likes.There is very clearly a lot more you and @fordnation can do to make sure kids are safe. Until you do those things, you are in no position to say you will do ‘whatever it takes’. I wish you were and you should but you are not. (3)
— Mayor Provenzano (@MayorProvenzano) August 29, 2020
