Municipal councillor wants schools to have safety plans in place for emergencies

A Halifax councillor wants to ensure all schools in the Halifax Regional Municipality have plans in place that would cover emergencies like wildfires.

District 13 Coun. Pam Lovelace, whose area was affected by the wildfires this spring, will seek a staff report on the matter when council meets on Tuesday.

She said the evacuation from the fires in Upper Tantallon and Hammonds Plains would have been more chaotic on a school day.

“It would have been really difficult for the children to be evacuated,” Lovelace said. “Schools don’t have school buses on site.”

Evacuation assistance using transit buses

She said the municipality could provide schools with evacuation assistance by using Halifax Transit buses. 

Lovelace will ask council to consider a report on a timeline for detailed evacuation plans, as well as what is expected of the municipality. She is also asking for plans to communicate with the school community. 

“It’s fairly surprising that there hasn’t been something along the lines of this contemplated sooner,” said Dustin O’Leary, president of the Westwood Hills Residents Association. His community was part of the evacuation zone. 

He said he appreciates the effort to look at schools, but said daycares are a larger concern. He said daycares are often farther from major roadways, which could pose a challenge. 

Two daycares were lost in the wildfires near Halifax.

“If you have 30 minutes and you have a parent that works in town or in the city, that’s a really difficult trip to manage quickly,” he said. 

Lovelace said evacuation of daycares and seniors are a concern for the municipality. 

Emails to HRCE and the province over the weekend were not immediately answered.