Alberta government to build 6 schools in Calgary area, 5 in Edmonton

The construction of 11 new schools in Edmonton and the Calgary region will happen through public-private partnerships, the provincial government says.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides is set to publicly announce Saturday afternoon that the government will spend money on five new schools in Edmonton, three in Calgary and one each in the cities of Airdrie and Chestermere and the town of Okotoks — three communities near Calgary.

Releasing money as soon as construction plans and sites are ready will help prevent projects from potentially losing a construction season, Nicolaides told CBC News earlier this week.

"We can build the schools faster, and that's our top priority because we have a lot of enrolment pressure," Nicolaides said. "We want to build the schools as quickly as we possibly can."

Premier Danielle Smith announced in September that the government is committing to accelerating construction and modernization of schools, in response to unprecedented enrolment growth across Alberta.

Saturday's anticipated pre-budget announcement is part of that work.

Funding for the 11 new school projects comes from a three-year, $2.1-billion commitment to construction spending the Alberta government announced in its 2024 budget, nearly a year ago.

The government also announced its School Construction Accelerator Program in September, through which it promised to spend another $8.6 billion over seven years, starting in 2025, to build and facelift more schools.

In this case, a public-private partnership — or, P3 — occurs when a private company, or a consortium of several businesses, bids on building a bundle of school projects. The winning group designs, builds and pays for the construction. It also owns and maintains the building for 30 years before handing it over to the provincial government.

This approach allows the government to pay off the cost of the building, plus interest, over several decades.

Some school divisions, however, have previously said the quality of some P3 school sites and level of maintenance failed to meet their expectations.

The 11 new schools will be bundled into two contracts: one for the three high schools to be built in Calgary, Airdrie and Okotoks, and another for eight elementary-junior high schools in Edmonton, Calgary and Chestermere, according to a Friday email from Benji Smith, press secretary for Infrastructure Minister Pete Guthrie.

The elementary-junior high schools should be constructed by 2028, Smith said, and the high schools could possibly be built by 2029.

Unprecedented growth

School divisions have had to figure out how to accommodate thousands more students arriving in Alberta in recent years. Provincial data suggests enrolment grew nearly four per cent from the 2022-23 school year to 2023-24.

School divisions and some parents, particularly in the Edmonton and Calgary regions, have warned the government that, without building dozens of elementary, junior high and high schools quickly, most buildings will run out of space.

Some jammed schools have already turned libraries, staff rooms and gymnasiums into ad hoc classrooms. Some suburban schools are so stuffed, they have had to turn neighbourhood students away.

Last fall, Edmonton Catholic Schools said half of its buildings were at or above capacity; 38 Edmonton public schools were full.

In Airdrie, north of Calgary, Rocky View School division's capital plan predicted its high schools would reach 111 per cent capacity this school year.

"The reality is, there is no available capacity in which to accommodate Airdrie high school students with the ongoing growth," the plan says.

The plan states a new high school in southwest Airdrie, for about 1,800 students, could open in 2028 at the earliest.

It would create manageable enrolment in the city's other three high schools — but only for an estimated five years, should growth continue unabated, the document says.

Announcements coming for 30 more schools

The School Construction Accelerator Program includes a promise to announce 30 new school construction projects each year for three years.

Nicolaides will reveal the list of the first 30 projects shortly after the provincial budget is released on Feb. 27, he said.

The provincial government will also fund six to eight school modernization projects each of the three years, he said.

No francophone schools will be included in Saturday's announcement, Nicolaides said, but more are likely coming in future bundles.

The program also features a plan to build or renovate 15 charter schools in the next years, adding 12,500 more spaces in the charter system — basically doubling that system's enrolment.

Those project approvals will be in addition to the 30 anticipated public, Catholic or francophone schools coming yearly, Nicolaides said.

Pilot program to help cover private school projects

For the first time, the Alberta government will launch a pilot program to fund part of the capital costs for some private school projects.

The Education Ministry surveyed independent schools about the pilot, and it will be ready come budget day to reveal how the program will work, Nicolaides said.

"There seemed to be a lot of preference toward a matching-grant-type of approach," he said, further explaining that the government would send $1 for every few dollars spent.

The Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta has previously said it would prefer that the government not own private school buildings outright.