Alberta Education has confirmed none of the 10 priority school projects are now approved for the next stage of project delivery are in the Rocky View School Division.
Yesterday, Infrastructure minister Peter Guthrie announced added flexibility to accelerate the construction of new schools in the province outside the traditional budget-year cycle. Projects already in the planning and design stages can move forward to the next step as soon as they are ready to do so without having to wait for the next budget cycle.
Advancements have been given to projects in Barrhead, Breton, Mallaig, Redcliff, Taber and Wainwright. Design funding has been approved for three Edmonton schools and planning funding has been given to a Calgary school.
"As more people are moving to the province, schools in the Calgary Metropolitan Area been feeling the pressures of strong student growth," says Education minister Demetrios Nicolaides in a written statement. "This is why we are moving forward with the school construction accelerator program to approve up to 90 new schools over the next three years to create 200,000 new student spaces in the next seven years."
"School boards and municipalities should work together to ensure that their priority school sites are permitted, serviced, and ready for construction work," says Nicolaides. "The sooner the sites are ready to go, the sooner the school project can be approved."