NORTH BAY -- The Ontario and federal governments are providing more than $13 million to Nipissing’s four local school boards to upgrade infrastructure at schools to protect against COVID-19.

The funding is being provided through the COVID-19 Reliance Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.

Local school board allocations include:

• Near North District School Board - $6,223,200

• Nipissing-Parry Sound Catholic District School Board - $4,583,000

• Conseil scolaire catholique Franco-Nord - $1,877,000

• Conseil scolaire public du Nord-Est de l'Ontario - $755,500

“These are extremely important investments that will upgrade our school's infrastructure and systems, all part of the COVID-19 response,” said Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli.

The funding will pay for building retrofits, updates and upgrades to their schools and co-located child care facilities.

“Our Near North District School Board is grateful to receive this investment into optimizing air quality in our schools,’ said Jay Aspin, board chair of the Near North District School Board. “The receipt of over $6 million will have a meaningful impact on the well-being and safety of our staff and students.”

Enhance physical distancing

Projects can include HVAC renovations to improve air quality, installing water bottle refilling stations to improve access to safe drinking water, and space reconfigurations such as new walls and doors to enhance physical distancing.

“This provides a timely opportunity to make improvements that will have a lasting impact on our learning environments and ensure the continued health and well-being of our students and staff,” said Nipissing-Parry Sound Catholic District School board chair Leo de Jourdan.

The investments build on the more than $1 billion the Doug Ford government has invested since 2019 in new schools and child care spaces and additions to provide working families with access to quality, safe, and state-of-the-art learning spaces.

Ottawa is providing up to $525.2 million towards the projects through the COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. The province is contributing $131.3 million.