Back in mid-April 2020 in an article entitled, “Ottawa seeks ‘shovel-ready’ projects for post shutdown stimulus plan”, the Globe and Mail reported that federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna was already seeking “shovel ready” infrastructure projects that might be included in a stimulus plan for the Canadian economy as pandemic restrictions are loosened. The term “shovel ready” refers to infrastructure projects that can be approved quickly and create immediate jobs. McKenna said she was focused on expediting the spending of more than $180-billion in infrastructure spending that has been approved through to 2028 and on getting money out the door this construction season.
As always, Fix Our Schools would like to see federal infrastructure money allocated to school infrastructure projects, even though we know provincial governments are responsible for education funding. We believe the bricks and mortar of school buildings are easily delineated from education itself and, as such, should benefit from federal funding. Federal funding of school projects may be particularly important going forward, as many economists speculate that provincial and municipal governments will be cash-strapped from navigating the COVID pandemic.
Fix Our Schools would also like to ensure that school infrastructure projects are prioritized and that school construction projects get started as soon as possible to leverage this coming construction season.
Alberta’s Infrastructure Minister Prasad Panda seemed to agree based on his mid-April remarks noted in a CBC Report entitled, “Timelines accelerated for five new school construction projects”. Panda said that the provincial government would borrow money rather than continue to pursue public-private partnerships in order to get construction moving more quickly on five schools throughout Alberta, creating around 560 construction jobs. Panda was quoted as saying, “To the extent possible, even under the COVID situation, I am trying not to miss this construction season. That’s the whole purpose.”
Saskatchewan also seems to agree that school construction projects are an important part of the economic plan going forward. In a May 6, 2020 article entitled, “Major infrastructure stimulus plan announced by Saskatchewan government”, $130.4 million in education capital funding is included in the overall capital plan, allowing for seven new school projects and three major renovation projects.
In Ontario, we have not heard any news of accelerating school repair and building projects. Fix Our Schools is wondering when Ontario’s Ministry of Education and/or Ministry of Infrastructure might begin to discuss timelines for school repair and building projects in this province. Construction season is imminent and, given the $16.3-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s publicly funded schools, there is no time like the present to start repairing, renewing, and rebuilding our children’s schools.
While it is clearly a challenging time in our education system, as students and teachers alike grapple with at-home learning, there would be a benefit to conducting construction projects in schools at this time. In recent years, the volume of reactive repairs needed at schools has necessitated that construction projects, such as roofing, often get done while students are trying to learn in these buildings. So a “silver lining” of this current pandemic situation, when children are absent from schools, is that many construction projects could get completed while these buildings are virtually empty.
We have billions in school repairs, still have a housing crisis; #climateaction is still on horizon and a promise to make the built environment accessible, & decarobinize by 2030; invest in infra now; #architecture is #infrastructure @cathmckenna @TOAdamVaughan
— Toon_Dreessen (@Toon_Dreessen) April 28, 2020