Emergency access poor at Stratford schools, says Aylward

P.E.I. Opposition Leader James Aylward is concerned about safety around the two schools in Stratford.

Glen Stewart Primary and Stratford Elementary are both are located on Glen Stewart Drive, which can only be accessed via Stratford Road. He is concerned that in the event of an emergency first responders would only be able to access those schools by that single route.

"Essentially these two schools are landlocked. There are over 1,000 children in these schools," Aylward said in question period Thursday.

"What I've been advocating for, for many years now, is to have Glen Stewart Drive connected through to MacKinnon Drive so that, at the very least, if an incident ever did occur at those schools and there were 1,000 kids at risk, the first responders would have more than one access to those schools."

Transportation Minister Paula Biggar said the situation regarding access to the schools has come to her attention.

"I want to assure everyone it's certainly something that we've had discussions on," said Biggar.

Those discussions, she said, have included the school board and the Town of Stratford.

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