P3 schools score more maintenance funds per facility

The provincial government is spending four times as much per school on maintenance for 18 new P3 schools as it is for the remaining 621 schools in Saskatchewan.

This year’s budget shows the province is spending $4.8 million for maintenance on 18 new jointuse schools — built using a publicprivate partnership — which works out to $266,666.67 per school.

For the province’s remaining 621 schools, it is spending $49.6 million on preventative maintenance, which works out to $79,871.18 per school.

Of the province’s 639 schools, 414 of them — roughly two-thirds — are more than 50 years old.

Education Minister Gord Wyant said Wednesday the maintenance funding for the P3 schools is “dedicated solely to the schools that are constructed with the (P3) proponent” and money for maintenance on those schools will be set aside for the next 30 years.

Essentially the province is setting aside maintenance money now for its new schools, so cash will already be there when fixes are needed.

How much money the province will set aside each year remains unclear, but Wyant said it will go up and down so that costs are “levelled out over a period of 30 years.”

After 30 years, the province says those schools will be in “like-new” condition.

The province’s remaining 621 schools will pay for maintenance this year by accessing the $49.6 million made available, which is divided among school divisions.

Asked why the province would be setting aside money to fix new schools while leaving less perschool funding available for aging ones, Wyant said that was factored into a value-for-money analysis done when a P3 model was chosen.

He said the $4.8 million set aside this year was “the number that comes out of the consultation with the (P3) proponent.”

NDP education critic Carla Beck said, “The concern is that more preventative maintenance is going into brand-new schools than a lot of other schools we’re seeing around the province.”

She said school divisions want more predictability in funding for new schools or maintenance costs, rather than hoping the money for repairs or replacements will be made available.

The province is aiming to have its preventative maintenance funding equal one per cent of the current replacement value of all its schools. This year, that would equal one per cent of $8.011 billion (the total estimated cost to rebuild every school), which equals $80 million in maintenance funding.

By spending $49.6 million this year, the province is spending roughly $30 million less than its target.