Tender awarded for St. Joseph's-Alexander McKay Elementary replacement

The long-delayed contract for a new school in Halifax's north end was announced on Wednesday.

A Nova Scotia government order in council shows the tender for construction of the replacement for St. Joseph's-Alexander McKay Elementary School was awarded to Marco Group Ltd. for $45.7 million.

Marco was the lowest of three bids the province received for the project, but it is still well above the initial budget of $31.3 million from when the replacement project was announced in 2021.

Public Works Minister Kim Masland said late last year that officials in her department were seeing "significant cost escalations" for construction projects because of supply chain demands, labour shortages and more expensive materials.

In an email Wednesday, department spokesperson Gary Andrea said officials are working with contractors "through value engineering to achieve some cost reductions to the overall construction budgets."

Contract for new Clare school also awarded

The government also announced Wednesday that RCS Construction was awarded the tender for the new Conseil Scolaire Acadien school in Lower Saulnierville in Clare. The winning bid is for $37.8 million.

The new school, which will host students from pre-primary to Grade 6, is expected to be ready for the 2024-25 school year.

The news of the tender for St. Joseph's-Alexander McKay Elementary, or SJAM as it was referred to in the neighbourhood, has been a long time coming for students and families. The new school will house students from pre-primary to Grade 6.

Originally announced as a renovation project in 2018, it was later determined the school would be replaced at its existing site on Russell Street. At that time, it was expected students would be in the new school by 2023.

Since then, the project scope and size was changed to add a fourth floor and additional programming. Demolition of the old school, parts of which were about 100 years old, happened last summer. At that time it was expected construction on the new school would begin this past January.

'Eager and excited'

As dates have come and gone, students have been busing across town to École Beaufort on Walnut Street and parents have expressed frustration about the limited information they were receiving about the project's progress.

The current expected opening date of the new SJAM is September 2024 and Education Minister Becky Druhan said last week that she expects that to remain the case.

"We're really excited about that school and we know the community is eager and excited about that school, as well," she told reporters following a cabinet meeting.