Nova Scotia is pushing back a deadline to decide what it will do with the privately-owned schools that it leases from Scotia Learning.
Education Minister Karen Casey was expected to make a decision by Thursday on the 13 schools that are operated under a public-private partnership contract, better known as a P3, but instead announced the Liberals are pushing back a decision until October for 12 of the schools. A decision on the contract for Pictou Elementary School will be deferred to June 2017.
Thursday’s decision was expected to be the first in a number of announcements as the province decides what to do with its 39 privately owned, publicly operated schools.
Documents obtained by the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) show the schools have cost more than $726 million over the life time of the contracts so far, the current leases expire in 2020.
In 2015-16 the province paid $37.3 million in lease payments for the 39 schools, according to those same documents.
The options for the schools include outright purchasing, signing a new lease agreement or deciding to close the schools.
Halifax Regional School Board has asked the province to keep the ten schools in its jurisdiction because the schools are either at or above capacity.
In June the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a report saying the public private partnership model cost taxpayers “tens of millions of dollars more” than if the province had built the schools on its own. The report also recommended the province purchase all of the schools that were still required when the leases expire in 2020 and 2021.