Redcliff’s Parkside among schools to get millions from Alberta’s new education fund

Previously approved school projects that are now in the planning and design stages could move forward to the next stage as soon as they are ready, Smith announced on Tuesday.

Ryan Boser, chief financial officer of the Prairie Rose School Division, said that without the new fast-track funding, the board would have just been waiting for provincial cash in the next budget cycle.

“Over the last year here we’ve been working hard to finish up the design of this project and so to hear that we can move to construction funding and get shovels in the ground, as they say, it’s just exciting,” Boser told CHAT News on Wednesday.

Once the bid process gets underway and a contractor is hired, construction should get started by spring, according to Boser.

While an exact timeline still needs to be worked out, he said it could take “a couple years”.

Ryan Boser, chief financial officer of the Prairie Rose School Division, says the Parkside project can move on to the construction bidding phase right away because of the new provincial funding. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

The entirely of the Parkside project — including planning, design and construction — will cost around $20 million, he added.

The Medicine Hat Public School Division was not immediately approved for any cash from Alberta’s accelerator fund, its secretary treasurer Leanne Dulle confirmed Wednesday.

But the public board is hopeful some of its capital project ideas submitted during the Alberta budget process earlier this year will acquire financial backing, she added.

“While MHPSD has not been notified of new or fast-tracked capital project funding, we are optimistic and are advocating for our capital project priorities to be considered as part of the new School Construction Accelerator Program,” Dulle told CHAT News.

While the project submission and approval process has not changed, the reduced time it will take for projects move through the planning, design and construction stages “will lead to greater efficiencies in addressing infrastructure needs,” Dulle said.

Several other schools received immediate funding.

In Taber, a pair of school modernization projects are moving ahead to the construction phase.

W.R. Myers High School and D. A. Ferguson Middle School will get mechanical, electrical and cosmetic upgrades.

In an address to Albertans on Tuesday evening, Smith said the province’s existing education budget isn’t enough to keep up with rapid population growth in kindergarten to Grade 12 schools.

“This is quite literally the fastest and largest build our province can manage given available construction workforce capacity and the time it takes to permit, prepare and service available school sites,” Smith said.

The province’s population grew by more than 200,000 people in the last fiscal year.

The premier said often the only thing holding back the cash is school boards getting projects ready for construction.

“If you can prepare the sites, the province will have the dollars set aside to get shovels in the ground,” the premier said.

Budget 2024 earmarked $1.9 billion in capital funding over the next three years for planning, design or construction of new and modernized school projects across the province.

Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi hailed the Alberta government’s education investment “generational” after Smith’s address.

However, he said the ruling United Conservatives are reacting to a crisis they should have already seen coming.

“They careen like a pinball from crisis to crisis,” Nenshi said.

“They wait until the leak is flooding the basement to try and close the leak and they stick their hand in it, not looking where the water is going.”

by Eli J. Ridder

Redcliff’s Parkside among schools to get millions from Alberta’s new education fund

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