Minister questioned after 2-day school closure in Whitehorse

Yukon's Minister of Highways and Public Works admits lapsed maintenance and clerical errors led to the surprise two-day closure of Whitehorse's cole milie-Tremblay school and the adjoining Garderie du petit cheval blanc daycare last week. And Richard Mostyn says there are similar issues in at least one other territorial school.

Parents and staff were left scrambling after a strong propane smell forcedcolemilie-Tremblayand the daycareto close last Thursday morning.

• French school, daycare, closed in Whitehorse due to gas leak

The problemwas a near-empty fuel tank, but inspectors found another, unrelated problem thatthen kept the school closed for a second day a back-up generator that powered additional emergency lighting was not working.

The school re-opened Monday, after battery-powered emergency lighting had beeninstalled.

In the legislature this week,MLA Kate White pressedMinister Richard Mostynabout the generator problem. She said there had been multiple attempts to fix it over the years, and that it was also identified as a "priority project" last March.

Mostyn admitted the generator had been an issue for almost three years since January 2015.

"I have no idea why that wasn't addressed at that time," he said. "That's not the way this government wants to operate."

"I'm actually looking into making sure that our other generators there's one at Porter Creek [Secondary] that's currently being fixed for exactly the same problem we're going to get on that and fix those problems."

Mostyn said there was a problem with the way the generator at colemilie-Tremblay was wired into the emergency lighting. He did not say whether there were similar issues with other schools, beyond Porter Creek Secondary.

'Life got turned upside down'

White also asked how the school's fuel tank was allowed to run empty.

"Most Yukoners are pretty familiar with the process involved in getting their heating fuel tank filled,"she said. "It's pretty straightforward, and it makes it hard for parents to understand why life got turned upside down for a couple days over this very issue."

Mostynblamed a "clerical error", saying that responsibility for filling the tanks had been transferred to the Yukon Francophone School Board.

"In the process of that transfer, it went to an on-call delivery system as opposed to a regular filling system," he said.

Mostyn said the government will make sure such issues "are clarified in the future."

In a statement to Radio-Canada, Superior Propane saysitsfuel supplier had been locked out during a previous attempt to inspect the school's tank, and the device that would have alerted the supplier when the tank was running low wasn't functioning its batteries were dead.

The company says ithastaken measures to ensure thatdoesn't happen again.