A new playground for Sidney Elementary

Remember when the Galiano Island community’s proposal to upgrade their school playground was through a BCAA competition?

In the past twenty years, due to chronic underfunding of public education, hundreds of other school playgrounds in British Columbia have been upgraded and built through the volunteer fundraising of Parent Advisory Committees (PAC).

This is changing and, this past week, I joined Minister of Education, Hon. Rob Fleming, at Sidney Elementary to cut the ribbon on a new accessible playground.

The outdoor learning and play area was funded by a $105,000 grant from the province. It is part of a program started in 2018 in which $10 million has been invested in improving more than 100 playgrounds across the province.

Investing in education

It’s important to invest in our children. As a parent of two young children myself, when I watch them play I see them exploring their flexibility and agility, testing the limits of their physical bodies and challenging their imagination and creativity. Play is critical to our healthy development (not just kids but adults too!). On the playground you see smiles and joy, hear laughing and happiness.

I truly value the efforts of volunteers. I remember as a kid playing on equipment donated by the Lions and Rotarians; there is certainly an important role for these community contributions. However, school PACs are not to be the fundraising arm of the provincial Ministry of Education. This is how previous governments viewed them. It’s our job to properly fund education programs and facilities. PACs should provide the invaluable voice of parents in their children’s education at their local school.

I am thankful this program is benefitting schools in Saanich North and the Islands and that I successfully navigated the zip line without falling and breaking myself!