School boards in Calgary and Edmonton are applauding the Alberta government for quadrupling school funding and fast-tracking the process to get shovels in the ground on school projects.
In a televised address Tuesday evening, Premier Danielle Smith announced $8.6 billion in funding over the next three years through a new School Construction Accelerator Program.
Starting in budget 2025, the province said the program will kick-start construction of 30 new schools and upwards of eight modernizations or replacement schools every year for the next three years. The goal is to create 200,000 new student spaces across Alberta over the next seven years to keep up with enrolment pressure.
“This is the fastest and largest build our province can manage,” Smith said at a media availability about the funding Wednesday morning. “We need more spaces now.”
Patricia Bolger, board chair of the Calgary Board of Education, called the investment “much-needed.” With 143,000 students this year — an increase of more than 5,000 over last year — the system is sitting at a 96 per cent utilization rate.
“Our schools are full,” Bolger said.
Edmonton Public School Board chair Julie Kusiek said the system has about 120,000 students this year, an increase of 6,600 students from last year. She said the boost in government funding allows her to envision a day “where kids can get into the school across the street because there will no longer be a need for lotteries.”
The School Construction Accelerator Program also speeds up the construction of schools, by allowing projects to be approved in-year for the next stage in the process without having to wait for approval in the province’s next budget cycle.
This means all previously approved school projects currently in the planning and design stages can move forward to the next stage as soon as they are ready to do so.
“If you’re ready, we’re ready,” Smith said.
The province has asked school boards to work with municipalities to ensure priority school sites are permitted, serviced and ready for immediate construction work.
“This will result in a more timely and streamlined way for getting new schools built in growing communities,” Bolger said.
In the last capital plan submitted to the province in March, Bolger said the CBE requested 21 new schools over three years. Bolger said all 13 projects requested in the first year are site and shovel ready.
“Families in Calgary expect all of these projects to be fully funded so students can attend school closer to home,” she said.
Bolger said the CBE needs 40 schools over the next 10 years to keep up with enrolment.
The Edmonton public board said it requires 50 schools over the next 10 years to meet demand.
Kusiek said all 12 of Edmonton Public Schools’ projects requested in its first-year capital plan are ready for budget 2025.
She said she spoke briefly with Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi on Tuesday night “and he confirmed that the City of Edmonton will work with Edmonton Public Schools to ensure sites are ready as soon as possible.”
“Together, we are going to do everything we can to ensure that site readiness is never a cause for delay,” Kusiek said. “I cannot overstate the significance of being able to move through the stages of construction swiftly and without delay…. With this new process, our division can have confidence that existing projects will proceed through the stages through to construction as soon as they are ready.
“Bring out the shovels and bring on the schools.”
Edmonton Catholic Schools board chair Sandra Palazzo spoke with Global News on Tuesday night before hearing all of the details of Smith’s announcement, but said she welcomes any increase in funding.
“Our facilities are full,” she said. “Our high schools are bursting at the seams. We’re facing a 100 per cent utilization.
“We look forward to receiving additional schools from the government so that we can continue to provide the education to our students that families are looking for.”
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said no one can dispute that investing in education is a good thing. However, he questioned the timing of the announcement.
“Why now? Why in September when we’ve lost a construction season? Why not in the budget so that people could plan?” Nenshi said following Smith’s address Tuesday night.
“This is typical of this government. They careen like a pinball from crisis to crisis. They wait until the leak is flooding the basement to try and close the leak and they stick their hand in it, not looking at where the water is going.”
Nenshi believes a better approach would be to methodically build schools as they’re needed. He said parents, students and school staff could see the pressures mounting.
“We all knew this was happening,” Nenshi said.
The new NDP leader also pointed out that the funding is for infrastructure and doesn’t outline any additional money to hire teachers or other support staff.
Smith said Wednesday that her government announced operational funding over the summer to help boards manage growth pressures this school year.
“We are working now on identifying if we need to modify our funding model,” Smith said. “With this huge surge, it’s not as responsive as we need it to be for enrolment growth. My minister is going through the treasury board process and working on an alternative model.
“There will be more to say in the upcoming budget, which will be delivered in February.”
The province said the changes mean that 10 previously announced priority school projects will now move into the next stage, including six that will move into full construction.
Tuesday’s funding announcement also includes money to purchase modular classrooms to add 20,000 student spaces over the next four years, as well as the addition of 12,500 new public charter school student spaces.