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School closures are a sensitive topic for the Liberal government in Quesnel because it’s the home of Small Business Minister Coralee Oakes, who won the riding in 2013 by a slim margin and is facing a tough re-election fight in 2017.

Clark went out of her way to credit Oakes for the money. But Goulet said Oakes was “non-existent” and didn’t showed up for a single public meeting over months as the community wrestled with a $1-million budget shortfall and school closures.

Some districts expressed confusion at why other remote or rural schools apparently aren’t eligible for funding.

Yahk Elementary School, 40 kilometres east of Creston, only has three students and is projected to have zero in September, and yet it’s on the government list to be saved along with Winlaw Elementary. It’s a “really good question” whether Yahk should be saved while the Kootenay Lake School District looks to close four other schools, said Lenora Trenaman, board chair.

“Of course we always welcome the funds, because we can use them, but one has to question where that money is coming from and why wasn’t it available before our communities got so stressed?” asked Trenaman.

The Okanagan-Similkameen school board could not be reached for comment on whether the funding will save Osoyoos’s only high school. The Bulkley Valley School District will meet Tuesday to discuss money for Kathlyn Lake Elementary.

In Okanagan-Skaha, school officials have already suffered through months of criticism from parents (and threats of legal action) to close Trout Creek Elementary in Summerland, said chair Linda Van Alphen.

“It’s taken a huge emotional toll,” she said. “And we were just doing the job the ministry had asked us to do.”

The district also wants money for West Bench Elementary in Penticton, which if closed would leave an entire rural area without a community school, but isn’t on the province’s list, she said.

Campbell River School District chair Susan Wilson said her board will meet Tuesday to discuss funding for two schools but revamping the budget this late will “be very tricky.”

rshaw@postmedia.com

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