After the education budget was announced, the opposition NDP was focused on a new Shellbrook school project that was approved in Premier Scott Moe’s riding.
At the time, the NDP argued that the government put a new Shellbrook school ahead of other more-deserving school infrastructure projects, but since then the subject has gone on the back burner.
On Monday, Shadow Minister for Northern Affairs Jordan McPhail, who was in Prince Albert for a different press subject but addressed the issue in a media scrum. McPhail, who represents Cumberland, said that in his riding there are schools with issues.
“On the issues of schools across Saskatchewan, what we expect the government to do is prioritize the issues that they see from an education standpoint, education capital,” McPhail said.
“We have schools that have water running through the ceilings of these areas,” he said. “Half the school doesn’t have running water. We have places like Sandy Bay that have had multiple issues. “
Following the budget announcement, the NDP issued a press release stating that “Scott Moe is building a new school in his hometown, despite more than 200 others across Saskatchewan being in more desperate need of renovations or a complete rebuild.”
The NDP argued that analysis of the government’s own data on the current condition of Saskatchewan schools shows there are 13 in “critical” condition, another 132 schools in “poor” condition and more than 200 in worse shape than the existing school in Shellbrook.
McPhail continued that argument on Monday.
“There was 200 schools ahead of Shellbrook,” McPhail said. “As far as the critical infrastructure that was needed in the education sector, we’ve been firm on this. A government should be looking at the priorities of all schools in Saskatchewan. Nothing should be fast tracked, and ultimately, the people that were hurt the most by this were the students.”
He said the government claims to put students first but there are 200 communities on a higher priority than Shellbrook.
“We’re not saying that Shellbrook didn’t need a school,” McPhail said. “What we’re saying very clearly is there were 200 other (communities) that have also schools that have also been lobbying and advocating, and they deserve to have their voices and their issues heard by this provincial government as well.”
In March after the Budget, Saskatchewan Rivers School Division board chair Cher Bloom said the NDP is attempting to pit school divisions against each other by focusing on the new school in Shellbrook.
Bloom also represents Shellbrook as a rural trustee for the division. She said some residents are under the impression that the Shellbrook school is not the division’s top capital project, but Bloom said that’s not the case.
“It has been (the top project) for over a decade,” she said. “The fact that rural schools are something that the government is finding beneficial rather than just looking at city schools where the population is, is also something that we’re happy to see when we have both an urban and rural split division.”
Bloom explained that the last school build in Saskatchewan Rivers was Vincent Massey School in Prince Albert, which was constructed in 2004. The division’s last major capital project was the CPAC at Carlton Comprehensive Public High School in 2014. Bloom said the division put some of their own funds into the CPAC project.
Bloom said it is difficult enough to get into the Top 10 Major Capital projects in the province and to move from Top 10 in 2025 Budget to construction approval in 2026 is amazing progress. Sometimes projects can be stuck in the Top 10 and not reach construction approval for years.
“We’ve been very good at advocating reasons why our school hasn’t moved into the top 10 earlier and I guess we received some traction by doing all the advocating,” Bloom said. “Every time we met with MLAs or the Minister of Education that’s something that we pushed for: a new school in Shellbrook.”
“We have been advocating as a school board for a little over a decade for the Shellbrook amalgamation,” Bloom added. “That has been our number one capital project request from the government for that many years.”
At the Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce Luncheon following the Budget in March Moe also took aim at Opposition leader Carla Beck, defending the government’s school construction record and referencing criticism over a proposed new school in Shellbrook. He said the province has built or announced 108 schools or major school renovations during the
Saskatchewan Party’s time in office, then accused Beck of opposing one project while not raising the same objections to new schools in her own constituency.
“I was hoping the leader would be here because they took issue with the 109th school,” Moe said. “I see the Sask River School Division is here, and I’d like to make an introduction after, and maybe they can explain why they don’t want that school to go into that facility when the leader of the opposition has three new ones in her constituency that she didn’t take issue with.”
-with files from Arjun Pillai/Daily Herald
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
