Manitoba NDP not committing to building schools promised by previous government
The Canadian Press | Posted: April 3, 2024 5:09 PM | Last Updated: April 3, 2024
PCs pledged 9 schools through private partnership; NDP budget delivered Tuesday promises 2 new schools
The future of nine schools promised by the former Progressive Conservative government in Manitoba is uncertain.
The Tories promised last year to build the schools by 2027, under a so-called P3 (public-private partnership) system in partnership with the private sector.
The NDP government, in the budget it delivered on Tuesday, has set aside money for two new K-8 schools — Ecole Mino Pimatisiwin School in Seven Oaks School Divisions, in northwest Winnipeg, and Ecole Sage Creek Bonavista in Louis Riel School Division, in southeast Winnipeg.
Those schools will be built by the government alone.
The government says those schools were planned earlier and were not part of the PCs' public-private partnership plan.
Finance Minister Adrien Sala says the P3 schools are not cancelled, but the province is not yet committing to them.
He accuses the former Tory government of promising the schools without having the funding for them.
He says the NDP government recognizes the need for more schools but will proceed responsibly, and a review of the public-private funding model that started last fall is ongoing.
The Tory plan would have had a private contractor design, construct and maintain the buildings. In exchange, the province would have signed a 30-year agreement, including payments for ongoing maintenance.
The Tories had said the plan would allow the schools to be built quickly and would save money.
WATCH | Highlights of the 2024 Manitoba budget:
Corrections:
- A previous version of this story said seven of the nine schools promised by the former government were on hold, but two were going ahead. In fact, the NDP government says the two schools it's promising were not part of the former government's plans to build nine new schools. April 3, 2024 9:43 PM