Students across much of Canada are packing lunches and slinging on backpacks today as they bid farewell to summer vacation and gear up for another school year. A elementary student arrives for his first day back to school in Montreal, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
TORONTO – While Tuesday marked the first day of school for many students across the country, summer certainly didn’t feel like it was over as heat warnings blanketed much of Central Canada.
One school board in Quebec closed all elementary and high schools on Tuesday due to the heat, while other districts in that province and Ontario said they would put measures in place to adapt to the high temperatures.
Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville, speaking to reporters at a high school inauguration in Gatineau, said Tuesday that the high temperatures — expected to reach 33 Celsius Tuesday with a humidex of 41 — were exceptional.
“I trust that teams in the schools will well manage the (heat) situation, I don’t have any doubt,” he said.
The province intends to build 150 new schools in the coming years, but they won’t be air conditioned.
“In newly built schools, we will install mechanical ventilation systems, which isn’t air conditioning but are ventilation systems that will provide for a certain level of comfort,” Drainville said.
Farther west, the Toronto District School Board announced Monday evening that it, too, would put its heat plan in place as the mercury was expected to hit 34 degrees, with a humidex of 42.
The board says that of its 583 schools, only 177 are largely air conditioned. Another 243 have cooling centres in large areas such as the gym or library.
Aside from the heat, parents and teachers say they’re expecting a new crop of issues to affect classroom learning this year, including generative AI technology, affordability and climate change. For some students, however, the first day of school experience remains largely unchanged year after year.
“I want it to still be summer,” said nine-year-old Harrison Halliday, who’s entering Grade 5 with a healthy dose of apathy.
Harrison’s dad, Bill Halliday, was far more optimistic as he dropped his two sons off at their Toronto school this morning.
“The days will be spent without childminding and I’ll be able to work and not stress about what they’re doing and keeping them off screens,” Halliday said. “God, that’s going to be good. I think it’s good that they’re active and going to be with their friends again.”
Meanwhile, Sid and Mukta Kanasker and their daughter Kashvi said they were excited for her to enter the fourth grade, despite the typical nerves that come with the uncertainty of a new year.
“I think coming back after two months, of course, there is anxiety with which class she will go and how the new teacher would be,” Sid Kanasker said. “But I think the school is great.”
While across much of the country it’s set to be a first day of school like any other, those in parts of Canada ravaged by wildfires return to a much different landscape.
The government of British Columbia has said no schools were damaged by the fires that tore through parts of the province, but that doesn’t mean students will be unaffected.
The flames passed close by some schools in Kelowna, B.C., leaving destruction in their wake.
For residents of Yellowknife, however, summer break has been extended.
Typically, students would have returned to their classrooms on Aug. 28, but the city is still under an evacuation order as fires continue their burn, so school will have to wait.
– With files from William Eltherington and Sidhartha Banerjee
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2023.
