Details coming for Three Oaks renovation registry, minister promises

The P.E.I. government is almost ready to release details of a registry of students who may have been exposed to poor air quality during renovations at Three Oaks High School from 2016 to 2019.

Test results during the renovations showed air quality did not always meet standards, and one day there were high asbestos levels.

In June of last year, the government hired a consultant to begin work on a registry aimed at alerting people who may have been exposed.

In the legislature on Friday, Green MLA Trish Altass said she understood the consultant has made recommendations, and asked Transportation and Infrastructure Minister James Aylward when the registry would be created.

Aylward said thatgiven the sensitivity of protecting the health information of the former students, the government is taking a lot of care to review the report.

"It was reviewed not only by the Department of Transportation, the Department of Education, the Department of Health [and]the Chief Public Health Office, but also qualified individuals that work in the public service, to make sure that anything that we do with regards to a registry, particularly that is going to pertain to young people, that they're protected," said Aylward.

Protecting private and confidential information in the creation of the registry is a priority, he said.

An announcement about the registry and how and when it will be rolled out will be made in the coming days, Aylward said.

What the registry will track is still not clear, and the government has been back and forth on the issue. In June 2019 it promised a registry to track health concerns for people who were students at the school during the renovations;however, in November the province said a registry was not necessary.

The following day the province saidit would indeed create a registry, and hired HR Atlantic as a consultant in June 2020.

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