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While new schools are often announced in the provincial budget, this year at least three school projects in Regina have been pushed back.
According to Mark Haarmann, CEO and Director of Education for the Regina Public School Division, construction of an elementary school and a high school in the southeast have been paused, as well as structural repairs to Campbell Collegiate.
Haarmann said the elementary school is the most pressing concern.
The new joint-use school with the Regina Catholic division is needed to help deal with student population pressures in the Towns neighbourhood. Parents in the area have talked about their kids taking classes in teachers’ lounges and libraries because the schools are so full.
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Haarmann said they’ve made changes to boundaries and busing, and added relocatables to help with the pressures. He explained there was a plan in place to get to September 2028, when the new elementary school was expected to open.
He said this wrinkle creates potential stress for the division.
“I think we can make it to September of 2029 without another boundary change, disrupting families, incurring increased transportation, relocatable costs. But after that, I think there’s going to be challenges again,” said Haarmann.
The new high school is less urgent, but Haarmann said the further it gets pushed into the future, the more important it is.
No new high school has been built in Regina in decades, and students in the city’s southeast have to go to Balfour, close to 10 kilometres from the new school site.
“Balfour itself is full, and it’s an older building that’s going to need a refresh soon as well,” said Haarmann.
That high school was expected to be open in September 2030.
Parts of Campbell Collegiate have become structurally unstable because of sinkage. (980 CJME files)
Campbell Collegiate renovation postponed
A renovation at Campbell Collegiate, Regina’s largest high school, was set to start in June, but Haarmann said that’s been postponed as well.
He explained that parts of the building have become structurally unstable because of sinkage. He said it’s not a danger to students, but parts of the building have been closed, and students moved out.
The renovation will include parts of the school being torn down and rebuilt, taking about 20 months from start to finish.
“We had plans to move students into other spaces, we had plans to limit out-of-boundary students coming in because we would have less space, we had plans for a portable commercial kitchen to come in because part of the building that will be involved in this renovation is our commercial kitchen,” said Haarmann.
He said all three of the projects are going to continue planning, but there is no word on when any of the three will get the go-ahead to move forward.
Haarmann called the delays disappointing for the division.
“I think frustration would happen if we got to the point where we had to make another boundary change and invest money short-term in relocatables that we know we won’t need in a year. And, of course, incur the cost and the inconvenience to our families of busing kids out of neighbourhoods,” he said.
Busing can cost tens of thousands of dollars extra a year and relocatable classrooms cost $750,000.
Haarmann said he understands the provincial government is facing financial pressures between wildfires and tariffs. He’s optimistic, hoping for a delay of only one year for the new schools.
As for the budget as a whole, Haarmann said on Monday the Regina Public division was still looking through the document, but that it appears to be status quo for them.
He said in a perfect world, there’s a lot the division could do with more money for kids and families but, given the situation the provincial government is in, Haarmann said that’s something they’ll look to in the future.
Education Minister Everett Hindley acknowledged there would be slowdowns at an event on Friday.
“There are several projects that won’t be advancing as quickly as initially planned,” Hindley said. “All of these projects are going to be completed; it’s a matter of sequencing them.”
The Ministry of Education said all 16 education projects on the Major Capital Action Plan are still approved and supported, and all projects are still active.
The government’s statement said the timelines for the Campbell Collegiate project and a project in Carlyle are being adjusted “to ensure construction proceeds in a strategic and sustainable way.”
It also said timelines for construction for the southeast Regina elementary school are being monitored.
980 CJME reached out to the other school divisions in Regina and Saskatoon about their projects.
Both Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools and the Saskatoon Public School Division said they hadn’t been informed of any of their projects being delayed. The Catholic division welcomed the announcement in the budget of the new Martensville-Warman area joint-use school.
Regina’s Catholic school division didn’t respond by the time of publication.
