NDP Education Critic Sarah Hoffman issued the following statement in response to Fort McMurray Public and Catholic closing schools for students in grades 7 to 12:

“We now have four major Alberta school boards that have been forced to send tens of thousand of students home because of rising spread of COVID-19, and still no plan from Jason Kenney and the UCP.

“The government isn’t even taking the lead on managing these major outbreaks, leaving decisions about schools operations to boards. There are no additional supports coming from the UCP government to keep as many schools open as possible and nothing has been offered to support parents managing the chaos of having their kids learn from home yet again.

“Albertans need real leadership to keep schools safe and students learning inside them. They’re getting nothing of the sort from this government.”