(School bus image via Shutterstock)
WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s budget has allocated over $100 million for the construction of five new schools in the province.
Finance Minister Cameron Friesen says four new schools in Winnipeg and one in Brandon will create capacity for 3,300 students, while making room for 392 child-care spaces.
Over the next two years, the following schools will be constructed:
• Brandon School Division – Southeast Brandon (kindergarten to Grade 8);
• Pembina Trails School Division – Waverley West (kindergarten to Grade 8);
• Pembina Trails School Division – Waverley West (grades 9 to 12);
• Seven Oaks School Division – Precinct ‘E’ (kindergarten to grade 5); and
• Winnipeg School Division – Waterford Green (kindergarten to Grade 8).
The schools will be built using a Public Schools Finance Board (PSFB) approach, rather than a P3 partnership model, which consultant firm KPMG recommended the province use last year.
“The PSFB has been able to harness many of the same ‘bulk buy’ savings that would be available to P3 schools, leverage the scale of building multiple schools at once and accelerate the process,” Friesen said.
The PSFB intends to issue tenders for the Waterford Green, Precinct E and Brandon schools by the end of 2018, and for Waverley West the following year.
