The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division welcomed a new Superintendent of Facilities on Sept. 15.
Derek Blais stepped into the role vacated by Mike Hurd, who has retired after many years as the Superintendent of Facilities.
Blais brings over 11 years of senior-level experience in municipal administration and public infrastructure management to the position.
Blais grew up and went to school in Debden, and his wife is also from Debden, and he is a former employee of the City of Prince Albert.
“We moved to Prince Albert actually in 2014. We were here from 2014 to 2019, where I was a recreation manager with the city,” Blais said.
Prior to working for the City of Prince Albert, he lived in Calgary and worked for Hockey Canada as the manager of Men’s national teams.
Before returning to Prince Albert, Blais was in Moose Jaw from 2019 until 2025.
“I started off as a director of parks and recreation, and the parks and rec department expanded to be community service and include planning and development and building standards and all that stuff. So I assumed that about a year ago,” Blais said.
He has been involved in facilities management, maintaining recreation facilities, since 2014. In Moose Jaw he was responsible for all civic facilities.
“So it’s something I’m fairly comfortable with, but just not on the school side of it.
Blais said that there is still a learning curve for the school facilities.
“There’s definitely some different needs between a public recreation venue and a school, but yet there are a lot of things that are the same,” Blais said.
He explained that similarities lie in how facilities are constructed with items like HVAC systems and roofing systems.
“And then developing maintenance management plans and capital renewal plans and things like that. A lot of that is the same. It’s just, I guess, different clientele,” Blais said.
Blais completed a tour of rural schools in the division last week and was very impressed by what he saw.
“The quality of the maintenance, the quality of the caretaking. It’s very clear that there’s a great team in place here. And Mike’s done some amazing work on the capital planning side and renewal side of things, even on the implementation of just software and different things like that for capital planning purposes,” Blais said.
He said that Hurd has implemented some great systems for streamlining service requests.
“It’s been some great work. They’re very, I guess, up-to-date if you were to compare them to other sectors. And when it comes to facilities management, they are definitely, I would say, ahead of the class. And it’s just something I just want to continue to build off of it, the great foundation that’s here,” Blais said.
Blais said that when he explored the opportunity to return to Prince Albert, he researched through old board reports posted on the Saskatchewan Rivers website and saw what systems are in place.
“I was like, ‘These guys have done a great job,’ and it’s reflected in the facilities and then the condition of the facilities, and yeah, it’s something I just definitely want to build off,” Blais said.
The facilities cover a wide space with schools in both the City of Prince Albert and surrounding communities stretching as far away as St. Louis, Shellbrook, and Kinistino.
“It’s definitely difficult to kind of wrap my head around it. I think there are 32 schools in total, going in all directions, east, west, and north-south, as well as the city schools,” Blais said.
He said that he was familiar with the Highway 55 corridor schools from growing up in Debden but was not familiar with the schools in Kinistino, Birch Hills, and St. Louis that he visited on Sept. 25.
He explained that he is not coming in with big ideas to make changes.
“As far as coming in with big ideas and big goals and all, the big thing for me is just to learn right now and to understand how things work, where things are at, what’s the condition, and what are the priorities when it comes to renewal projects, when it comes to maintenance, and potential replacement of schools, just to understand all of that.
Blais said that in his career he has learned that it takes a year in a job to get your feet wet.
“You have to go through a full cycle of all four seasons to really understand your role and understand your team and what’s kind of needed. And then you just slowly build off of that,” Blais said.
He explained that he used the accountability reports produced by Hurd as a way to familiarize himself.
“The accountability reports have been great, just to learn a bit more about how the facility or the department operates and what the priorities are and things like that,” he said.
The job is similar but different from his previous job in Moose Jaw based on the number of facilities he oversees.
“I think the number of facilities is definitely something that’ll be an adjustment. In, say, in Moose Jaw for example, we had 10 major facilities, whereas here we have 32 schools plus our accessory facilities.
Accessory facilities include the Education Centre, Transportation Depot, and various storage buildings.
Blais said that he is looking forward to the job and building off the work done by Hurd and his team.
“I’m just appreciative of the opportunity, excited to really get my feet wet, and grateful for the work that’s been done here by Mike and the whole facilities team. And hopefully we can continue moving things in a positive direction,” Blais said.
