Frustration is growing in northern New Brunswick as the city of Campbellton awaits a new anglophone kindergarten-to-grade-8 school.
The plan has been in the works for several years, but local officials say the project keeps getting punted.
Mayor Ian Comeau was surprised to hear none of the $84-million set aside for schools last week was designated for a new K-8 school in the city.
“Here we go again, for the fifth year in a row, being denied capital money for this new school,” he says.
Money has been allocated for land acquisition to build new schools in Saint John and Fredericton.
And while controversy around new schools is nothing new, neither are ageing buildings.
Campbellton Middle School is about 100 years old, built in the 1920s, while Lord Beaverbrook School was built in the 1950s.
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A new school — to combine them and the now-shuttered Tide Head — has been on the provincial radar, but Comeau is becoming impatient.
“Something has to be done,” he says. “I was disappointed for our kids — the kids’ kindergarten to grade 8.”
“This has been in the works for the last five years,” Comeau says. “The site is ready there, we brought the water, sewage and everything. Money has been spent.”
In 2017, the then-Liberal government announced a $23-million school would open in September 2020.
But since then, nothing.
After a meeting two-plus years ago, Gilbert Cyr, an ex-city councillor and a current member of the district education council, is discouraged Campbellton isn’t on the immediate radar.
Cardy wasn’t available for an interview Friday, but Flavio Nienow, an education department spokesperson, says a new K-8 school in Campbellton is third on the now-public school priority list.
“The department has also included the project on the Stable Departmental Infrastructure Priorities (SDIP) planning list,” he says. “Projects on the SDIP list don’t need to be re-evaluated every year and will remain on the list until they are funded — unless there is a significant change in scope or an emergency situation.”
Nienow says the department allocates its “limited resources” using an “unbiased analysis tool.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Comeau is seeking a meeting with Cardy, hoping for an explanation.
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