Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange was in Airdrie on March 23 to formally confirm the future construction of a secondary Francophone school.
Once built, the school will serve the city’s French-speaking students in grades 7 to 12, supplementing the city's sole Francophone school, École francophone d'Airdrie, in Ravenswood. Funding for the new school, which will be in Reunion, was allocated in the Alberta government’s recent capital budget.
Before taking to the podium at École francophone d’Airdrie on Thursday, LaGrange conducted a brief interview with the Airdrie City View, responding to our questions about the local public school division’s criticisms of the Alberta government’s recent budget, the ongoing space crunch in Airdrie’s public schools, and the demand for a second Francophone school in the community.
Here is a transcription of that interview, edited for clarity and brevity.
City View: “What is your response to comments the RVS board of trustees made after the provincial budget came out, when they said they were disappointed by the lack of funding for new schools in their division?”
LaGrange: “After the capital budget, I think there a bit of a misunderstanding. They received four schools. I can't remember the exact ones, but I believe one was in design, two were in planning, and one was in pre-planning. This is the first year we’ve had pre-planning and planning [separate] and there was some confusion on understanding the process of pre-planning and planning. They thought that would add additional time to a build. But in fact, it’s to eliminate barriers, so that we can go directly to build when construction dollars are given.
“I did meet with my deputy minister, my chief of staff, and the whole [RVS] board two weeks ago and clarified, in fact, that when we announce whether we’re in any stage of funding for those schools, they will indeed be built. It really will, at that time, eliminate barriers. In fact, if you’re in pre-planning and all the work can be done that is required – because there are different elements and activities that have to occur during those phases – then next year, if everything is done, we can go straight to construction.
“Often what we’ve seen in the past – and I was a school board trustee for 11 and a half years, so I get where their anxiety is coming from – the site wasn’t ready or there’d be delays. I have schools I announced back in 2019 or 2020 that still have yet to be constructed. All of that pre-planning and design work was not done ahead of time. This [new process] is really to have more transparency in the system so school authorities can know these schools are a high priority, not only for the school division, but also for government to make sure they happen.
“Subsequently, after that meeting with RVS, they wanted a ‘comfort letter’ so I made sure to do a comfort letter for them to say that very thing: that these schools will be built in a timely fashion and my department will work with them to make sure we move those projects along quickly. I also wrote a letter that I asked the school authority to send to all the parents. And I did speak to all the mayors as well, and they’re understanding of the process.”
City View: “So these four priority schools for RVS will be built in the coming years?”
LaGrange: “Absolutely, and I’m hopeful all four of them maybe could be ready for construction funding next year.”
City View: “Another way RVS has addressed its space concerns is by adding modular classrooms. They requested funding for 32 new modular classrooms last year and they’re hoping those will be approved. Are you able to give any assurances to that request?”
LaGrange: “We have a modular program. It’s typically about $25 million a year, but this year, it’s $47 million. A couple of years ago, I increased it to $98 million because there was a backlog.
“Unfortunately it hit at a time when we had supply chain issues, increased costs and increased labour costs, which caused delays. My understanding is all of the ones we ordered under that $98 million are finally completed and this $47 million will address a number of new ones, [as well as] moving modulars for school authorities that need to move some, as well as demolition of older ones.
“I don’t have the exact numbers yet – that should be coming in the coming weeks. Typically we have those numbers out in April.”
City View: “Regarding today’s announcement of a future Francophone high school, why is that an important project for Airdrie?”
LaGrange: “We’re seeing a burgeoning of Francophone students across the province, particularly in this area. The Francophone population has grown by 40 per cent in the last decade or so, and we need to make sure we have modern, up-to-date schools for the Francophone community as well, as we welcome new people to the community. This [school] is very important for the Francophone community.
“We also have an obligation under Section 23 of the charter, [Minority Language Education Rights], a legal obligation, to make sure that Francophone communities receive equitable capital infrastructure funding.”
City View: “This new Francophone high school for Airdrie was considered a priority capital project for FrancoSud, the southern Alberta Francophone school division. They want to build it in northwest Airdrie, in Reunion. But their capital priorities plan references a higher-than-usual amount of arsenic in the ground there. Are you aware of that, and could it impede construction process?
LaGrange: “Well, there’s naturally occurring arsenic in the ground. We’ve come across it with another school that has been in progress for a while. That’s why I really wanted to make sure in our capital approach, that we have planning, pre-planning, design, and construction articulated. It’s because of the fact we do see some of these issues arise.
“There are amounts of naturally occurring arsenic that are allowable. With this other school project, they were talking about mitigating it somehow. It does occur, and there are ways to mitigate it, but I leave that to the professionals who are able to do that.”
