Surrey school trustee ‘not optimistic’ province will fund $5.5B in capital projects

The Surrey School Board has submitted their 2027-28 five-year capital projects plan — totalling $5.49 billion — to the province, but at least one trustee is “not optimistic” much of it will be approved.

Passed at their June 10 board meeting, the proposal includes 19 additions onto existing schools, 29 new schools, 26 site acquisitions, one replacement and one seismic upgrade – projects needed to keep up with the city’s explosive growth. 

Board vice-chair Garry Thind said that when he first joined the board in 2014, their capital projects demand was around $250 to $300 million, but after years of inadequate funding, issues have worsened and land prices have only risen. 

“[The] government is not investing right now,” Thind said. “I think that’s a very, very wrong decision … The government need[s] to spend the money now to purchase land. I’m not saying that they need to build the schools today, but to purchase the land is the right time.”

While some elementary schools are overcrowded, the aggregate shows elementary schools to be under capacity; but by 2035, elementary school enrolment is projected to be close to hitting that limit. On the other hand, most secondary schools are already far past capacity and the problem is expected to worsen with time. 

Thind said new sites had been pinpointed based upon forecasted growth from the City of Surrey and the provincial government. The presentation to the board notes that some seats may not be needed until a decade later, but land purchases must be done now to secure those future seats; especially in areas like Newton, Fleetwood, City Centre and Grandview Heights where population is expected to grow significantly. 

“We will be adding thousands and thousands more seats in Surrey, and we’ll be looking at about [a] 90,000 student population in [the] next 10 years. Currently, we have 83,000 students,” said Thind. 

Last year’s capital project ask was $5.7 billion — Thind attributes this year’s price drop to falling property prices and not a reduction in projects. He added that last year the Ministry of Education only approved two additions to existing schools. 

“If you don’t invest, the demand is going to keep going up. Our job, our duty as trustees and school board, is to teach the students,” he said. 

Surrey is not the only school board facing challenges. Thind said other districts like Abbotsford, Mission, New Westminster, Richmond and Burnaby are also struggling with enrolment outpacing capacity. 

Thind said often meetings with the ministry and local MLAs go nowhere. 

Even when it comes to smaller, less expensive projects — like replacing floors or repainting rooms — Thind said Minister of Education and Child Care Lisa Beare has said that there is no money. 

“We had a meeting with the minister and her staff a couple weeks back, and there was a very, very straightforward, blunt answer that we don’t have money; the government is in [a] huge deficit, and we cannot invest in education. So that’s where the problem is,” he said.  

Even when speaking to local Surrey MLAs, Thind said he was met with the same response that there are no funds for education. 

When asked about whether the ministry will approve funding for any of the capital projects, Thind was not hopeful. 

“I am not, not very optimistic. I’ll be very frank, because what we are hearing from the Education Minister and the other local MLAs and ministers … they are saying, ‘No, don’t look at us, we don’t have money.’ We might get a couple projects in the next few years, who knows.” 

To change this, Thind believes that the community needs to come together to advocate to the province. 

“We’ve been trying to advocate for a long time. The government is not going to do anything until and unless the parents of 83,000 Surrey students, they start raising their voice and start going to their local MLAs and Ministers and telling them that we are not going to elect you guys again unless and until you give Surrey the fair share that Surrey is looking for,” he said. 

He provided the example that in 2016, the Surrey District Parents Advisory Council alongside the Surrey Teachers Association and other CUPE members rallied together for better funding. In May of that year, then-Premier Christy Clark announced contributing $74.2 million in funding for up to 2,700 new student spaces in Surrey.

But, Thind explained that shortly after the B.C. Liberals lost the provincial election, leading to the newly elected NDP government to cancel many of the announced projects, only to re-announce them a year later. He added that in this announcement, then-Premier John Horgan had promised to end the use of portable in 2021 — a problem that not only persists, but has worsened across the school district. 

“Education was never a priority for this government, or even for the previous government. I know their priorities are housing and affordability, and those are very, very serious issues. I’m not saying that they should not work on those issues, but education should be one of their top most priority,” said Thind.