NDP criticizes government on maintenance plan for Sask. schools

The Saskatchewan NDP says it is concerned more money is being put into preventative maintenance at brand new schools built through public-private partnerships than other schools in the province.

The government has a public-private partnership, or P3, contract which allots $4.8 million in maintenance costs for the 18 new joint-use schools this year, while $49.6 million is allotted for maintenance for the province's 621 non-P3 schools.

That works out to an average of $267,000 spent on each public-private partnership school, while average spending on each non-P3 school is $80,000.

The public-private partnership money is on a fixed schedule for the next 30 years. It will not be the same amount each year. Minister of Education Gord Wyant said not all of the $4.8 million budgeted this year will necessarily be spent.

NDP education critic Carla Beck said non-public-private partnership schools don't have the same guaranteed maintenance funding. She said boards that need to have a school replaced or renovated need to put in requests and "hope."

"I think boards would like some of that predictability for their non-P3 schools," she said.

Beck said the lack of predictability extends to which schools the ministry chooses to fix or replace.

"Boards need to know now. Do they put money into a crumbling roof or do they wait and hope there's some money for that build next year?" Beck said.

The province has 639 schools, 414 of which are more than 50 years old.

Wyant said the ministry has a goal to funnel one per cent of the current replacement value of capital funded schools budget to preventative maintenance. That would be one per cent of $8.011 billion — the total estimated cost to rebuild every school in the province — or roughly $80 million.

This year's provincial budget allots $49.6 million.

Schools in need of replacement

Beck also took issue with a change in how school capital requests are reported.

In last year's budget, the province published a list of approved capital projects. Up until 2013, it posted its capital list based on priority.

This year, the province is providing a top-10 list of all capital requests for schools but gives no timeline for when the schools will be rebuilt or fixed. Four of this year's top 10 are requests for total replacement of a school:

• École St. Pius X - Regina ($30 million).
• École St. Mary - Regina ($30 million).
• St. Frances School - Saskatoon ($22 million).
• St. Michael School - Moose Jaw ($29 million).

Wyant said he would like to see those schools replaced in the next five years.

Concerns at aging Regina school

Last week, the NDP highlighted problems at École St. Pius X in Regina. The school has a leaky roof and other issues including a heaving floor and falling ceiling tiles.

The school can be repaired but it's not financially sustainable, nor does it make much sense to keep repairing it, Domenic Scuglia, director of education for the school division, said last week.

Wyant said the priority is safety for students and staff.

"It's important to make sure that children that are going to our classrooms have safe and secure places to go to school so when we hear stories about St Pius we're concerned, so we'll make sure to have conversations with school divisions to continue to make sure those schools are safe with our kids," he said.