Province announces six new school projects in capital budget

The Higgs government is loosening its spending restraint as it heads into an election year, committing to six major new school projects in the province to accommodate soaring enrolment numbers.

Finance Minister Ernie Steeves made the announcement as he delivered his capital budget for next year in the legislature. 

He said enrolment in provincial schools has spiked by 7,200 students in just two years and is forecast to grow by another 6,000 in the next four years.

"This means we must respond to the increased demand for space in our schools and continue to build on the progress we have made in recent years," he said.

Steeves said the province will spend $10.2 million to start work on four new schools in Moncton, Fredericton, Dieppe and Salisbury.

That money will also fund major expansions at Saint-Henri School in Moncton and Tabusintac School near Miramichi. Education Minister Bill Hogan said they will both double in size.

Soaring population growth

This announcement compares to three new schools announced last year, in Saint John, Shediac Cape and Campbellton, and two the year before, in Fredericton and Moncton.

But the new projects are still unlikely to be enough to address the soaring population growth in Moncton and Fredericton in particular.

"With what we're announcing and what we're spending in education, it isn't going to completely meet all of next year's needs, in terms of new space," Hogan said.

He said the province would still be relying on portables, though "not as many," he said — before acknowledging even that might be optimistic.

"Who knows, with the influx of new students that we get every week? That's what we do," he said. "We get new students in New Brunswick every week."

In the Anglophone East school district, based in Moncton, superintendent Randolph MacLean said last week enrolment had increased by 2,541 students since September 2021.

"What are we going to do?" he said. "Build more schools, I hope. That's what we want." 

Anglophone West, in Fredericton, says its unofficial enrolment figures for this fall show an increase of 1,400 students compared to two years ago and almost 1,900 students since September 2020.

And in Francophone South, which includes schools in Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John and Miramichi, enrolment has grown by almost 1,400 students between September 2021 and this year.

The district says it needs five schools to accommodate that growth. 

Hogan said the new Fredericton school will be a replacement for the aging George Street Middle School in the heart of the city. 

The Dieppe school, originally imagined as two schools, a kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school and Grade 6 to 12 school, will instead be a single school taking in kindergarten to Grade 12, he said.

"It's a challenge to look at new builds where we need them," Hogan said. "Would we like to do it all? It's impossible to do it all. We're also looking at how we can do it quicker."

50% education budget increase

The total capital budget for education would be $187.4 million in 2024-25 — a 50 per cent increase over what the government's multi-year plan had laid out for the year.

Of that, $82 million would be to continue construction of eight previously announced schools already underway.

Steeves said $50.3 million would be spent on improvements, land acquisition and site assessments and ventilation upgrades in schools. 

The capital budget also includes $33 million for construction next year of public housing projects — part of the $102.2 million announced in October 2022 to build 380 new units and upgrade 110 more.

But no more funds would be added to that total with this year's budget.

Steeves attributed the total increase in the capital budget, $188 million more than what the government originally planned to spend in 2024-25, to inflation and labour shortages, not the looming election scheduled for Oct. 21, 2024.