‘No cancellations’: Premier defends school construction priorities amid NDP concerns

Premier Scott Moe says no school capital projects are being cancelled, but construction timelines are being adjusted. Wayne Mantyka reports.

Premier Scott Moe says his government remains committed to 20 school construction and renovation projects currently in the queue for funding.

“There are no cancellations and no delays with respect to the school outbuild or any other piece of infrastructure outbuild in this province,” Moe said.

Moe tried to clarify after the town of Carlyle reported Friday that South East Cornerstone School Division No. 209 had been informed the new Carlyle school project was put on pause.

“These projects we’re talking about, the 20 that are ongoing, they are all in various stages” Minister of Education Everett Hindley explained. “Some are only 25 per cent designed. There’s no way that those schools were ever going to be actually going ‘into construction this year so.”

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A government statement said timelines for two projects, the Carlyle school and renovations to Regina’s Campbell Collegiate, have been adjusted to ensure construction proceeds strategically and sustainably, with work now scheduled for a later date.

Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck raised the issue of the supposed “pauses” or “delays” to school construction on Monday, claiming it is evidence that the government’s budget is leading to cuts.

“Frankly I am so far, so far past the point of taking these guys at their word. I think a lot of people in this province are as well,” Beck told reporters Monday morning.

The province says it will spend $4.3 billion on capital projects across government this year, one of the highest totals ever.

Still, officials say not everything can proceed at once and some projects will be sequenced.

According to the premier, the province has in total, 109 capital projects in the planning or construction stages.

Further defending the process, Moe said the province’s approach is also meant to limit inflationary pressures that have been building with the construction of new capital projects - such as schools.

“It’s not about reprioritizing, it’s not about delaying,” he added. “It’s about working within the finite capital numbers that we have, which are some of the largest in the province’s history, and planning in a very methodical way so as to not push up the inflationary costs of building schools, being prudent with the taxpayers dollars so we are getting the best bang for the dollar that we are investing.”

Responding to the charges from the Sask. NDP that Moe advocated for a school in his home community of Shellbrook - the premier was blunt.

“That particular project has been number one on the capital list of the local school division, the locally elected school division, for a decade or a decade and a half,” he said.

“That’s who really, I would say they are questioning when they’re trying to put forward these divisions between communities, or significantly between urban and rural centres.”