Redford draws line in the sand
Tory leader promises $2.4B for schools to counter ‘Dani dollars’
Tory Leader Alison Redford set o a schoolyard brawl during the Alberta election campaign Wednesday with a promise to build 50 new schools across the province and renovate 70 more over four years.
Taking aim at the threat from the Wildrose party to end the Progressive Conservatives’ 41 years in power, Redford said the $2.4 billion needed for the projects — $1.2 billion for new construction and $1.2 billion for renovation — would come from projected surpluses.
Wildrose party Leader Danielle Smith promised this week to give back 20 per cent of those surpluses to Albertans as “energy dividends.”
Redford, who before has barely mentioned Wildrose or Smith by name, said $1.2 billion is equivalent to one year of “Danielle dollars.”
“There is a choice for Albertans to make in this election, a clear di erence of priorities,” Redford told supporters outside a Calgary YMCA. “My priority is schools for children.”
But Smith accused the Tories of being misleading for suggesting Albertans must choose between new schools and energy dividends.
“I think we need to look at how we can have both.”
Smith said the PCS have squandered money over the years that could have been used for new schools.
“We have to judge the PCS based on what they have done rather than what they say they are going to do. And if you look at their record, it’s been pretty pathetic.”
Under the Tory proposal, planning and construction for the new schools would begin in 2013.
It’s unclear which communities will receive new schools first, as various capital plans from school boards are not expected until the end of April.
Redford said existing criteria within the Department of Education and school boards would be used to set priorities for spending.
This year’s provincial budget projected a fifth straight year in the red, with a forecasted deficit of $886 million.
But the government expects that soaring energy revenues will deliver a $952-million surplus in 2013-2014 and a whopping $5.2 billion in 20142015.
Liberal Leader Raj Sherman noted the Tories had been floating a much higher number for necessary schools before the election, when Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk said Alberta needed to build 400 new schools over the next 10 years.
“How come we didn’t get these schools in the last four years?” he asked.
NDP Leader Brian Mason said the school promise is driven by political fear.
The provincial budget passed just before the writ dropped outlined spending plans for $1 billion over three years for schools.
“Alison Redford said at the time they wanted to pass the budget so Albertans would know clearly where the government was going. Now it sounds like they are changing gears, maybe because they’re doing poorly.”
University of Calgary political scientist Doreen Barrie said the school promise may help Redford win over some voters for whom education is a prime concern.
Dave Colburn, chairman of the Edmonton public school board, said he looks forward to hearing the particulars of the Tory promise.
“Our modernization needs are acute; our new school construction needs are real.”
Several Edmonton Catholic schools are “in dire need of modernization,” board chairwoman Debbie Engel said, and new schools are needed in growing communities on the outskirts of the city.
“We know that the people that elected us as a board would be thrilled to have the capital plan needs met,” she said.
The promise was also welcomed by the Holy Family Catholic School Division.
Its school in Grimshaw was thrust into the spotlight when Tory MLA Hector Goudreau wrote a letter urging the board to be “diplomatic” in order to get a new school, saying that upsetting comments “could delay the decision on a new school.”
The school, where a broken heating system had students wearing winter coats indoors, is still in need of repairs, school board chairwoman Dianne Lavoie said.
“The only thing that’s changed is the weather is warmer,” she said, adding Redford’s pledge was very good news.
The president of the Alberta School Boards Association said there’s clearly a need for new schools and repairs to old ones, adding she’s cautiously optimistic about the Tory announcement.
But Jacquie Hansen — who failed in a bid for a Tory nomination — also urged a more sustainable provincial plan to upgrade aging facilities, and noted none of the promised money was in the recent budget, despite lobbying from her association.
The Alberta Liberals, meanwhile, promised an annual $100-million boost to government-subsidized early childhood education programs on Wednesday.
Liberal Leader Raj Sherman made the announcement during a visit to Mill Woods’s Rainbow Daycare centre.