Province rejects Fraser Valley requests for new schools

No new schools for you.

The provincial government’s school building spree looks set to grind to a halt in the fast-growing Fraser Valley, with Victoria telling the region’s five school districts it won’t green-light new major projects this year.

Last year, the school districts submitted capital plans with a combined $1.5 billion of schools, sites, and expansions for which they hoped to receive funding. This spring, the province told the districts that there is no money for new schools in the valley.

In letters sent this spring to school boards in Langley, Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Mission, and the Agassiz-Hope area, the province blames school fires and a “challenging fiscal environment” for its inability to set money aside for new and expanded schools.

The lack of funds for new schools follows a decade of population growth in the Fraser Valley that has prompted the province to promise to increase school facilities in the region.

‘Emergent issues’

Every year, local school boards put together lists of new schools and other capital projects they hope the province will fund. Around 10 months later, Victoria writes letters to each district revealing which projects will receive money.

For each proposed project that receives funding, there are many that are left waiting for money in the coming years. But new and expanded schools were being regularly approved across the region. Last year, for instance, the province approved $153 million worth of new schools in Langley, where the school district had put together a list of projects worth nearly $700 million.

The province has moved to try to expedite the construction of additions by green-lighting modular additions that cost about $1.5 million for each new classroom. And construction and planning on new school projects continues for new schools in north Langley, Mission, and rural Chilliwack.

Last year, the Fraser Valley’s five school districts put together major capital plans with a combined $1.5 billion in requested new school projects. Those include site acquisitions, expansions, seismic stability upgrades, and entirely new schools.

Langley had the largest school wishlist, with more than $700 million in requested projects. Chilliwack had a list of projects worth a combined $330 million. And the Fraser-Cascade, Abbotsford, and Mission school districts each had between $150 million and $210 million worth of new school needs.

You can see each major capital plan here: Langley | Abbotsford | Mission | Chilliwack | Fraser-Cascade. You can see the response letter sent to the Abbotsford School District here.

None of the requested schools, sites, or expansions will receive funding, according to letters sent to the districts this spring. (The province has provided funding for a range of maintenance upgrades at various schools).

The letters sent to the school districts cited “a variety of emergent issues including a significant number of school fires and a challenging fiscal environment.” A handful of fires have damaged schools over the past year, and the province has also committed to rebuilding a Port Coquitlam school destroyed in 2023. But that “challenging fiscal environment” is likely the larger factor, with the letters sent in the spring at the height of uncertainty about the fiscal ramifications of American tariffs.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that new schools won’t continue to be built over the coming years. But capital allocation is the first step in a lengthy bureaucratic process that can take years to turn a promise for a new school into real classrooms, desks, and blackboards.

Mission was promised its new high school in the 2020 provincial election, but it took until the spring of 2023 for the province to approve the school district’s capital request. A business plan was approved in 2024, but officials don’t expect construction to wrap up on the new school until 2029.

The Current asked the province it it had approved new major capital projects in any school districts this year.

In a lengthy emailed response that didn’t answer the question, the spokesperson wrote that “only after a business case is approved can funding be confirmed and announced.”

That would be new: in 2023, the province held a press conference to announce funding had been allocated to replace Mission Secondary School. A business plan was only completed the following spring, at which point the province issued another press release. The ministry said it had approved 10 major school projects, including the Mission high school, “since last year.” Those had a combined value of $1.1 billion.

The ministry response said year-over-year comparisons don’t “reflect the progress of school capital planning” and pointed to its 2025 budget, which allocates $4.6 billion to schools over the next three years. The ministry said “We look forward to announcing more school capital funding in the coming months.”