The volunteer-led organization Ontario School Safety is renewing calls to the Ontario government to improve indoor air quality in schools.

The call comes as Ontario sees a rapid increase in cases of the flu, particularly impacting young children.

In April, 2021, the Government of Ontario announced it was investing over $130 million, in addition to funds from the Canadian government, to upgrade school infrastructure to protect children from COVID-19. The majority of this funding was earmarked for ventilation projects to improve indoor air quality.

HEPA filters continue to be required in kindergarten classrooms and learning spaces without mechanical ventilation, but Mary Jo Nabuurs, a spokesperson for Ontario School Safety, tells CityNews there was no education on how to use the filters and so there are grave inconsistencies across boards and even within individual schools.

“Even in a school itself, you could have some portion of the school be really well ventilated based on the ventilation system they have there, but another portion of the school may not be,” Nabuurs says.

She says the government needs to test air quality in schools to see where improvements are most needed.