$200M For a Single School? BC Budget Gives the OK
(Image courtesy of CBC)
Last month, when the BC government unveiled its 2025 budget, a project stood out. $203 million was allocated for the construction of a single secondary school in Langley. The project, Smith Secondary School, will have a capacity of 1,900 students and will be completed in 2027.
New School Costs Higher than Previous Projects
An outsider may look at this project and think that $203 million is a very high price for a single secondary school. Well, that’s because it is. Using the BC area standards guide, which lays out how big a school should be, a secondary school with a capacity of 1,900 students should be 16,390 square metres (m2). That means for every one m2, Smith Secondary School will cost taxpayers $12,386.
Previous secondary school projects have been significantly cheaper. The Burnaby Central Secondary School, completed in 2011 by the BC Liberals, cost taxpayers $4,492/m2. Another project, Belmont Secondary School, opened in 2015 and was completed at $4,560/m2.
The Smith Secondary School costs even exceed the BC NDP’s previous secondary school projects, such as Grandview Heights Secondary, completed in 2021 and done for $5,985/m2, and Quw’utsun Secondary, completed in 2025 and done for $6,864/m2.
Due to the unusually large amount of money this project was given, Coastal Front reached out to the BC Ministry of Education to ask how the government got to that number. The ministry said that “estimated funding is approved by the government based on information provided in the school district’s business case for the project” and that “detailed budgeting information is not disclosed publicly as it could negatively impact the procurement process.”
Lack of Clarity Gives Way to Worst Outcome
This non-answer by the government raises questions about not just transparency but also where the government is spending money. While building new schools to meet the large population needs of BC is important, what is not necessary is pointless extra spending by the BC government. Premier Eby is not fronting the bill; the BC taxpayers are. The Premier talks about making “large investments in education,” but if these “large investments” are just graft from the government to construction companies, what’s the point?
Many BC taxpayers are parents and want their children to receive a good education at a decent, well-built public school. The questions Coastal Front has for the BC government is whether all $203 million will accomplish that goal. How do you measure success? The amount given to a school or the outcome of the students? With BC’s credit rating getting downgraded and the deficit projected to rise to 14.3 billion, one has to hope the answer is the latter.
