New schools for Calgary, Edmonton announced

Alberta's education minister announced plans Thursdayto build 18 new schools inEdmonton and Calgaryunder private-public partnerships.

Ron Liepert said the plan will see a large number of schools built quickly and give taxpayers value for their dollar.

In Calgary, the new public schools will be forelementary students, upsetting parents who wanted to see junior and senior schools built as well.

"Would it really be that hard to sort of put together a cookie cutter [grades] five to nine package too? Would that have been difficult?" said Christy Carlson, who haslobbied fora middle school in her north Calgary community of Coventry Hills.

Pat Cochrane, chair of the Calgary Board of Education, said trustees will continue to push for what they see as thethe number one need in Calgary—a new high school in the north end of the city.

"This is what we have and we're going to make the very, very best of it," she said.

Liepert, who appeared frustrated,said parents have to be patient.

"I invited you folks here as a courtesy," he said. "This is a first step and it's a lot better than doing nothing."

All but one ofnewCatholic schools in Calgary will take students up to Grade 9.In Edmonton,most of the new schools, both Catholic and public,will also run to Grade 9.

Under what is being called a P3, or public-private partnership,the province will contract out the design and construction of the new schools, which will be builtby 2010 with a standard design that will allow for future expansion.

Ownership will remain with the school boards, which will not have pay leasing fees.

The winning bidder will also have a 25- to 30-year contractto domajor maintenance and repairs, such asreplacing boilers and roofs.

Liepert said he doesn't know yethow much the schools will cost.

Nova Scotia ended P3 construction program

In an interview with CBC News earlier this year, D'Arcy Lanovaz, the Alberta president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said Nova Scotia is an example of why schools should not be built using the P3 model.

Nova Scotia dismantled a controversial P3 school construction program in 2000, calling it a financial failure.

At the time, the Progressive Conservative government said the cost of school construction under the P3 process spiralled out of control because the previous Liberal government didn't set building standards or require accountability.

In 2003, an arbitrator ruled that the company that built 11 schools under the P3 program had the right to collect some of the revenue generated by the schools and charge groups to use the schools after hours. Under the Nova Scotia model, schools were leased back from the company that built them.