Connect with us
[the_ad id="89560"]

Alberta

Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announces nearly 25,000 new and upgraded spaces for students

Published

12 minute read

Investing in new schools, modernized spaces

Alberta’s government is investing $2.3 billion over the next three years, for new and modernized classrooms.

Budget 2023 supports 58 projects, which includes 13 full construction projects, 20 design, 14 planning and 11 pre-planning projects. In total, there will be nearly 25,000 new and additional spaces for students across Alberta – 9,400 new spaces and more than 15,500 student upgraded spaces. This includes approximately 4,500 new and upgraded spaces in Calgary, 4,100 in Edmonton and 16,300 for the rest of the province.

“Alberta’s young learners are the community and business leaders of tomorrow. They need the right spaces to gain the tools and skills needed to prepare for their bright futures. By investing in our schools, we’re investing in our students while at the same time creating more jobs and supporting the local economy.”

Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Education

This investment in education infrastructure includes:

  • $372 million for construction and design projects:
    • 10 new schools
    • 16 replacement schools
    • seven modernizations
  • $4 million to support planning activities such as site analysis and scope development for 14 projects
  • $1 million to pre-plan 11 conceptual projects that are anticipated to become high-priority needs for school jurisdictions
  • $1 billion to continue work on previously announced projects
  • $300 million over three years in school authority self-directed capital projects
  • $279 million to support the maintenance and renewal of existing school buildings through the Capital Maintenance and Renewal Program
  • $171 million to support public charter school infrastructure, including investment for a charter hub in Calgary
  • $43 million to fund facility upgrades for successful collegiate school applicants
  • $93 million for the modular classroom program to address urgent space needs across the province

“The Alberta government is investing in critical infrastructure projects that include upgrading and building high-quality schools to ensure Albertans can send their children to schools in their local communities. Our focus is on ensuring these projects are delivered on time, on budget and where they’re needed.”

Nathan Neudorf, Minister of Infrastructure

The availability of suitable sites has been one of the biggest roadblocks causing delays to school projects. That’s why, through Budget 2023, Alberta’s government is creating a new School Planning Program that will serve as a transparent “pipeline” for upcoming school projects to begin as soon as formal construction funding is approved. Fourteen school projects will begin planning and site development through this new program while a further 11 projects will receive pre-planning funding to assist with developing scope options.

The planning program will allow for the further development of project scope and site investigation work. It will also help to clarify potential risks and identify mitigating strategies and costs. The goal is to provide school boards with the resources they need to remove barriers and better position the project for design consideration and construction approval in future budget cycles, which is expected to reduce costs and minimize schedule disruptions and delays.

“The Calgary Catholic Board of Trustees is grateful for the capital projects announced for the Calgary Catholic School District, which includes full funding for the K-9 school in Nolan Hill to serve this rapidly growing community. We anticipate receiving the full construction funding for the Rangeview high school and Chestermere K-9 school as soon as possible, after the design process is completed. These projects need urgent attention given the critical need for school infrastructure and CCSD’s high utilization rate in these communities. CCSD appreciates the pre-planning commitment towards the construction of the K-9 school in Redstone, the addition/enhancement of Bishop McNally High School and the construction of a new west-end high school.”

Cathie Williams, board chair, Calgary Catholic School District

“On behalf of CBE students and their families, we thank the Government of Alberta for the capital plan announcement. These extraordinary and timely investments in infrastructure are vital to support student learning opportunities within our system.”

Laura Hack, board chair, Calgary Board of Education

“This is an exciting day for Elk Island Public Schools, for the community and especially for students of both École Campbelltown and Sherwood Heights Junior High. A modern, well-equipped and efficient building will allow us to continue to offer the quality education students need to succeed in the classroom and will help ease the growth pressures we are facing in Sherwood Park.”

Trina Boymook, board chair, Elk Island Public Schools

Quick facts:

  • Full construction funding activities include construction and post-occupancy review.
  • Design funding activities include the preparation of construction tender documents such as drawings and specifications.
  • Planning funding activities include site analysis and scope development activities.
  • Pre-planning funding allows a conceptual project to define scope elements, programming priorities and includes activities such as community engagement.
  • To support the decision-making process for delivering infrastructure projects, the Ministry of Infrastructure passed the Infrastructure Accountability Act in December 2021. This act outlines how the province prioritizes projects for the annual capital plan.
  • As legislated by the act, the government also published Building Forward: Alberta’s 20-Year Strategic Capital Plan in December 2021, providing a blueprint for long-term infrastructure investment and development in Alberta.
  • The government’s budget decisions are made in accordance with the act and are guided by the strategic capital plan to ensure future capital investments benefit Albertans.
  • Government partners, such as municipalities and school boards, will also be able to plan for capital funding knowing the long-term direction of government.

Budget 2023 school projects – full construction funding (13):

Community School division Project type/Name
Airdrie Conseil scolaire FrancoSud new secondary school
Calgary Calgary Board of Education modernization of John G. Diefenbaker High School
Calgary Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division new K-9 school in Nolan Hill
Edmonton Conseil scolaire Centre-Nord solution for École Michaëlle-Jean and École Gabrielle-Roy
Edmonton Edmonton Public School Board new K-9 school in Edgemont
Lethbridge Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Separate School Division new K-6 school in west Lethbridge
Lethbridge Conseil scolaire FrancoSud École La Vérendrye gym project
Okotoks Christ the Redeemer Catholic Separate School Division replacement of École Good Shepherd School
Penhold Chinook’s Edge School Division replacement of Penhold Elementary School
Raymond Westwind School Division new high school
Sherwood Park Elk Island School Division solution for Sherwood Park
Valleyview Northern Gateway School Division solution for Valleyview
Waskatenau Lakeland Roman Catholic Separate School Division replacement of Holy Family
Catholic School

Budget 2023 school projects – design funding (20):

Community School division Project type/Name
Airdrie Rocky View School Division new K-8 school in southwest Airdrie
Barrhead Pembina Hills School Division modernization and rightsizing of Barrhead Composite High School
Blackfalds Red Deer Catholic Separate School Division new K-5 school
Bow Island / Burdett Prairie Rose School Division solution for Bow Island and Burdett
Breton Wild Rose School Division modernization and rightsizing of Breton High School and demolition of Breton Elementary School
Brooks Grasslands School Division replacement of Brooks Junior High School
Chestermere Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division new K-9 school
Calgary Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division new high school in Rangeview
Edmonton Edmonton Catholic Separate School Division solution for Rundle Heights
Edmonton Edmonton Public School Board new junior/senior high school in Glenridding Heights
Fort McMurray Conseil scolaire Centre-Nord replacement of K-12 École Boréale
Lac La Biche Northern Lights School Division replacement of Vera M. Welsh School
Leduc Black Gold School Division modernization of École Corinthia Park School
Mallaig St. Paul School Division replacement of École Mallaig School
Medicine Hat Medicine Hat Roman Catholic Separate School Division replacement of St. Francis Xavier School
Nanton Livingstone Range School Division solution for Nanton
Red Earth Creek Peace River School Division replacement of Red Earth Creek School
Spruce Grove Parkland School Division replacement of Spruce Grove Composite High School
Taber Horizon School Division modernization of the W.R. Myers and D.A. Ferguson schools
Wainwright Buffalo Trail School Division replacement of Wainwright School

Budget 2023 – School Planning Program projects (14):

Community School division Project type/Name
Airdrie Rocky View School Division new grades 9-12 school
Calgary Calgary Board of Education modernization of Annie Gale School
Calgary Calgary Board of Education new high school in Cornerstone
Coalhurst Palliser School Division modernization of Coalhurst High School
Donnelly High Prairie School Division G. P. Vanier School
Edmonton Edmonton Catholic Separate School Division new K-9 school in Heritage Valley Cavanagh
Edmonton Edmonton Public School Board new K-6 school in Rosenthal
Edmonton Edmonton Public School Board new elementary school in Glenridding Heights
Fort McMurray Fort McMurray School Division modernization of Westwood Community High School
Grande Prairie Peace Wapiti School Division new high school north of Grande Prairie
Lethbridge Lethbridge School Division modernization of Galbraith Elementary School
Okotoks Foothills School Division new high school
Stettler Clearview School Division modernization and addition at Stettler Middle School
Strathmore Golden Hills School Division replacement of Westmount School

Budget 2023 – Pre-Planning Program projects (11):

Community School division Project type/Name
Calgary Calgary Board of Education modernization of A.E. Cross School
Calgary Calgary Board of Education modernization of Sir John A. Macdonald School
Calgary Calgary Board of Education new Saddle Ridge middle school
Calgary Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division new elementary school in Redstone
Calgary Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division addition at Bishop McNally High School
Calgary Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division new west Calgary high school
Chestermere Rocky View School Division new K-9 school
Cochrane Rocky View School Division new K-5/K-8
Edmonton Edmonton Catholic Separate School Division new north K-9 school
Edmonton Edmonton Public School Division new junior high school in Pilot Sound/McConachie
Red Deer Red Deer Public Schools new northeast middle school

Alberta

Media melts down as Danielle Smith moves to end ‘transitioning’ of children in Alberta

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

After Alberta’s Danielle Smith put forth legislation to protect kids from being gender ‘transitioned,’ the Canadian media went on a predictable melt down, citing ‘experts’ who blatantly lie to advance the LGBT agenda.

A year after announcing her intention to combat transgender ideology and protect children, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has tabled three pieces of UCP (United Conservative Party) government legislation: 

  • The Education Amendment Act 2024 will require parental consent for “socially transitioning” children under the age of 16 (changing a child’s name or “preferred pronouns”). The bill also gives parents an “opt-in” option for any sexual or content at school. Smith has emphasized that the Alberta Teaching Profession Commission has the power to discipline teachers if they decide to break the law. 
  • The Health Statues Amendment Act 2024 will ban the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, as well as prohibit sex change surgeries on minors. 
  • The Fairness and Safety in Sport Act will ban trans-identifying men from female sports teams.  

Together, these three bills represent the most definitive pushback against gender ideology in Canada by any premier. Smith’s decision to announce her intent to pursue such legislation and then wait has turned out to be politically savvy—it has given the UCP government a good look at the LGBT response, and during that time the U.K.’s Labour government has successfully fought to maintain a similar ban in the courts and publicly rebutted many of the scare tactics used by LGBT activists.

Smith and the UCP are thus walking into this debate with eyes wide open, and are clearly certain that the public is on their side (it is) and that the legislation can survive the court challenges surely coming from LGBT activists. The policies are clearly popular with the UCP party’s base, who handed Smith a staggering 91.5% approval rating in her leadership review at UCP gathering in Red Deer last Saturday.  

The party also passed 35 policy resolutions, including several that indicate the UCP’s willingness to go further in fighting transgender ideology, with resolutions that would restrict “exclusively female spaces” like bathrooms and changerooms to females and designating transgender surgeries as “elective cosmetic procedures” not funded by the taxpayer. The motions received near-unanimous support.  

The Canadian press, unsurprisingly, is working hard to present policies that the vast majority of Canadians support as an attack on fundamental norms (albeit norms that only surfaced in the last few years and were never presented to voters). Global News ran the headline: “Alberta unveils 3 sweeping bills affecting trans and gender-diverse youth.” It is important to note that the press accepts the premises of transgender ideology as the starting point for their reporting, with heavy usage of nonsensical phrases like “gender-diverse youth,” which implies that there are many genders. 

In fact, Global News and other Canadian outlets trotted out talking points that have been definitively rebutted by the U.K.’s Cass Review and multiple medical studies—in fact, even the New York Times has been reporting on the permanent harms of puberty blockers over the past several years. An example from Global News: 

Alberta parents of gender-diverse youth like Haley Wray believe the new laws will give kids less choice — especially when it comes to health-care that is not permanent but instead, gives kids time to work through their identity struggles. 

‘Hormone blockers are a very valuable tool,’ Wray said, explaining they have a very small window of effectiveness to pause, but not prevent, puberty. ‘It is reversible because nothing changes. And what that does is it allows youth and families to have that that pause, that break to explore further, validate, understand what this means and know that permanent changes aren’t happening.’

Wray believes the proposed legislation will make the province a less safe place for tens of thousands of Alberta kids who aren’t straight. It’s why, Wray says, a growing number of families with transgender children are now grappling with whether Alberta is a place they can stay. ‘I know people who have, and I know people who genuinely feel like there is likely nowhere to go,’ she said. 

This is incorrect. Puberty blockers cause permanent damage, and children may be rendered permanently sterile after taking them for a relatively short period of time. Puberty is not something that can be “paused,” and it frequently causes irreversible rather than reversible damage. Smith and her government understand this, which is why they have decided to pass this legislation—not, as nearly every press outlet claimed, to “target trans youth,” but to protect them. 

The CBC chimed in with sentences like this one: 

Terms like ‘biological female’ and ‘biological male’ can be used to imply that transgender people are still their assigned sex at birth, despite their identity. 

To translate: a scientifically accurate and precise statement is now an ideological one, but inherently ideological language invented by the transgender movement over the past decade is, in fact, technically accurate. People can identify as anything they want; it is irrelevant to their biology. The CBC presents pointing this out as some sort of propagandistic attack on vulnerable people. 

Featured Image

Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in the National PostNational ReviewFirst Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, the Jewish Independent, the Hamilton SpectatorReformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.

His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

He is the author of The Culture WarSeeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of AbortionPatriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life MovementPrairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide with Blaise Alleyne.

Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

Continue Reading

Alberta

Alberta calling for federal election! Premier Smith demands feds scrap dangerous oil and gas production caps

Published on

Premier Danielle Smith, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz and Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean issued the following statement on the proposed federal oil and gas production cap:

“This production cap will hurt families, hurt businesses and hurt Canada’s economy. We will defend our province, our country and our Constitutional rights.

“Make no mistake, this cap violates Canada’s constitution. Section 92A clearly gives provinces exclusive jurisdiction over non-renewable natural resource development yet this cap will require a one million barrel a day production cut by 2030.

“The evidence is overwhelming. Three reports from reputable firms have shown that these regulations will sucker-punch Canada’s economy, a million barrels cut every day according to S&P Global, $28 billion a year in lost GDP according to Deloitte, and up to 150,000 lost jobs according to the Conference Board of Canada.

“The losses to GDP mean billions a year will disappear from the economy. Billions that won’t be going towards new schools, hospitals and roads, all for a reckless ideological scheme that will not reduce global emissions.

“Ultimately, this cap will lead Alberta and our country into economic and societal decline. The average Canadian family would be left with up to $419 less for groceries, mortgage payments and utilities every month. Canadian parents and workers will suffer while Justin Trudeau outsources the duty to provide safe, affordable, reliable and responsibly produced oil and gas to dictators and less clean producers around the world. We could be the solution. Instead, Ottawa would rather sacrifice our ability to lead.

“Tweaks won’t work. This cap must be scrapped. Alberta’s government is actively exploring the use of every legal option, including a constitutional challenge and the use of the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act. We will not stand idly by while the federal government sacrifices our prosperity, our constitution and our quality of life for its extreme agenda.”

Continue Reading

Trending

X