Province to Replace Kelly Road Secondary
Photos 250News
Prince George, B.C. – It’s been on the Prince George School District’s capital wish list for years now and it’s finally set to become a reality.
This morning local Liberal MLAs Shirley Bond and Mike Morris announced Victoria will replace Kelly Road Secondary School at a cost of $44.3 million.Construction will start this fall and take three years to complete.
($43.3 million is coming from the provincial government and $1 million from the Prince George School District).
The 56-year-old school will be replaced with a state-of-the-art building on the same site, with enough space to accommodate 900 students.
(It will be built on the same property so current students will be able to continue classes until the new facility is complete.)
It will also be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standards and include lots of natural light, and large open and collaborative learning spaces to support B.C.’s new school curriculum.
Prince George-Mackenzie Liberal MLA Mike Morris said it was time for a new school. “It’s been in existence since the ’60s. It’s had a lot of additions put on it as well and there are structural issues with it. So, building a new school is probably the easiest route to go.”
Prince George School Board chair Tim Bennett was thrilled with the news.
“Kelly Road has been at the top of our capital wish list for six or seven years. We’ve identified it as reaching the end of its best life so to speak and it’s something we’ve been asking government for for many years so we’re really excited.”
He added it will have a positive impact on the neighbourhood.
“We see significant growth as a lot of the elementary schools in the Hart are either at or over capacity already. So, if that trend continues we know that we have space at the new Kelly Road for these students.”
And as an added bonus, Jobs Minister Shirley Bond says construction of the new facility is expected to create 135 local jobs.
“One of the things that’s really special about this project is we have a policy that if you have a project over $15 million contractors are required to hire apprentices on that project,” she said.
“So, not only will we see 135 jobs on this project, but there will be a requirement to train apprentices at the same time. We’re also adding funding from a program to put new trades equipment in schools right across the province which the school district here will receive as well.”
Comments
And with an election just around the corner…I wonder about the timing of the announcement.
Timing doen’t matter, both MPs would be re-elected no matter what. This is great news for the community and the students (and future students) in the Hart.
Yes it is, Eye Spy, great news indeed!
Good grief, this government has no shame – Shirley and Mike getting another photo-op
CBC is reported yesterday that in the last month the Christy Clark Liberals have announced $1 billion in one-time vote buying photo-ops with 84 for Liberal ridings, 7 for NDP ridings & grant announcements only in Liberal ridings.
CFTK – TV in Terrace reporting Prince Rupert Middle School (NDP riding ) is at the point where things have been neglected for so long that the school is beyond repair—it cannot be fixed. Mike Bernier’s own ministry’s report says that the school is beyond its useful life. When MLA Rice presented a petition with 300 parent signatures, the Minister of Education response was to laugh and scoff.
Every school in Richmond needs seismic upgrading, waits for years under this threat to kids.
Disgusting.
Fair enough about the timing, but isn’t it true that Kelly Road needs to be replaced?
I’m sure it does, but KRSS has been on a list for a year while other schools have been begging for years, kids lives at stake in the lower-mainland for years, over-crowding in Surrey for years and all of a sudden just before the election they can come up with money for Liberal ridings?
You actually have to say something credible to be taken seriously – Surrey/White Rock has been held by the BC Liberals since the riding was created
Huh, Surrey/White Rock must be a “safe” Liberal riding, with no high ranking BC Liberal MLA’s running in that riding… to infer this announcement has nothing to do with politics, and the upcoming election, is an insult to us all slinky!
The point is that Kelly Road is also at the point where it could no longer be fixed. The school was built in the 50’s. The staff literally duct tape lights to walls for lack of any other option. A portion of the school roof caved in several years ago. The building is at the point now where students are in danger. The replacement was initiated by the school board, and has been on the table for several years now, not just over election time. While I agree that it was well timed for a photo-op and campaign opportunity, the upcoming election has nothing to do with the fact that the school needs to be replaced.
“Since launching the Seismic Mitigation Program, the Ministry of Education has spent over $1.3B and completed 163 high-risk seismic projects throughout the province, with an additional 13 projects currently under construction, and 8 projects proceeding to construction.”
The seismic upgrading of schools seems to be well underway as 184 of 342 completed or in progress. 1.3 billion spent so far is not exactly pocket change. Some schools in Richmond have been completed although they do seem to be behind other areas. Not sure if the local school board is playing politics with this issue as the left wing Vancouver board has been doing.
Progress report as of January 2017:
www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/resource-management/capital-planning/seismic-mitigation/progress_report.pdf
anniemartin, please provide your proof that every school in Richmond needs seismic upgrading!
EVERY SCHOOL? Prove it!
Here’s hoping the constructIon is awarded to local contractors to keep these funds in our community.
Let’s hope one of the local construction companies have deep enough pockets for the payola .
Money talk to Christy , integrity walks .
Actually they need deep enough pockets to be able to over a performance bond.
On the same site? What will happen to the kids over the next 3 years?
There is lots of room there. The new school should be built with little or no impact on the existing school.
You mean they can tear down an unused wing, build there, move in, and tear down another wing, and so forth?
No, that’s not what I meant. There is a lot of room beside and behind the existing school, and it’s accessible without using the front of KRSS. Sheeeeesh.
The new school will be built on the current field, and Kelly Road will continue operation in the current building as usual until the school is completed.
That’s what I was wondering. Thanks.
Wait this is new BH is no where to be seen yet thumping his little chest over another photo op
I’m surprised poor lil boy is slipping
She has already, just using her other handle. AM
I absolutely agree with most everyone commenting. KRSS has needed replacing for years and the requests have been made repeatedly, only now to be addressed. Perfect timing!!! Nothing like using our own tax dollars to buy votes.
If you want the job as contractor just do the usual with this government … give them a huge bribe..I mean donation and the job is yours…
I don’t know who will win the contract but I dare you to publically accuse the winning bidder of gaining advantage by offering bribes.
Come on grow a pair and do it. You too ataloss.
It’s called history.. just look at the history of the contracts awarded by the liberals..then look at the amount of political “contributions” they gave the party.. it’s disgusting.. but it’s the way they do business.
Grow a pair now then and name some names! Accept the challenge.
I read a CBC news article the other day where their research discovered that businesses who made donations to the BC Liberal Party were twice as likely to land government contracts compared to those businesses who did not make donations.
Interesting!
I read an article where those who donated to the NDP were twice as likely to receive government contracts than businesses that do not.
Sounds pretty stupid doesn’t it but it is true. This will always be true as the same companies that donate to the Liberals also donate to the NDP, just in lesser amounts. Those companies involved in bidding for political contracts almost always donate to the political parties. Last election companies donated more to the NDP than the Liberals. If they had won the election the first paragraph would be 100 percent true if the same contracts were tendered but we all know they couldn’t tender anything except their lunch trays.
If that statement were made and the NDP was in power you would whole heartedly say it had nothing to do with corruption and was just a statistical anomaly. You really have to do some soul searching before the election is over.
P Val and CanWeMakeADifference, wasn’t the Vancouver Island Highway project completed under the last NDP government, and wasn’t all work awarded exclusively to UNION companies?
Would you consider that to be using our own tax dollars to buy votes?
Hmmm, didn’t the NDP also award the Fast Ferry contracts to UNION contractors?
Oh it was better than that. My brother was a union rep on that project and in the pre-job meeting they were also given a directive to make sure minorities were dispatched in set percentages, which was a problem for his particular union considering that had lots of F.N. members but no “other” members. Point is, under NDP it wasn’t hire the best, it was hire the right ethnicity and gender mix.
History is just that… its our present and future I am worried about.. DID I say other governments didn’t do it NO.. so please focus on the here and now HG.. We need to stop any party from doing this pandering..
I worked on the Island Highway and I wasn’t part of a union shop at that time.
Ummm… NO, the contracts were awarded to private shipyards, HG you do the research to find out whether or not they used union or non-union workers.
BH, actually the contracts were not awarded to private shipyards.
“The government hoped that private shipyards would be able to build the ships on a fixed-cost basis. This turned out not to be the case; the shipbuilding industry was less enthusiastic than anticipated. Moreover, none of the shipyards being considered for the work had the facilities to build the fast ferries. BC Ferries had no choice but to do the work itself on a cost-plus basis. It would have to act as project manager and assume the risk of the fast ferries. Catamaran Ferries International (CFI), a wholly owned subsidiary of BC Ferries, was incorporated in March 1996 to carry out the work and construction started later that year.
The CFI board was suddenly replaced a year later with a new one whose members were either part of CFI management, had significant business ties to the company, or already served on BC Ferries board. According to the Auditor-General’s report, this is a textbook example of poor corporate governance. It “created the awkward accountability relationship of having board members account to themselves for their performance.”
So Peeps, looks like I did more research than you! OMG!! Not sure yet it CFI used unionized labour in the construction, but being that CFI was a subsidiary of BC Ferries, it’s probably pretty safe to assume that the workforce was unionized!
Now Peeps, perhaps you can do some of your world famous googling, oops research to confirm if the workers were unionized or not!
Go Peeps Go! Research! Research!! Google, oops Research, haha!
HG, you really should thank your Lib-Con team for doing the research leg work for you. Why do I say this? Because I have been posting on here for years, and so have you. This community knows each other… and there is absolutely no way you managed to research that yourself.
In fact, your above comment is completed out of character from any comment posted by you. over years past.
Myself on the other hand, I will always be uniquely me! ;-)
Google is your friend BH, you really got hot on this one. Maybe sit back and relax with a cold one, life isn’t worth a stroke
They stated that all local companies will be used, specifically targeted at hiring local trade apprentices.
Wonder if they will ever run out of money, school needed replacement but give me a break, the timing is to obvious. Starting to build in the fall 2017? winter should be a lot accomplished and who gets the bid, well save the taxpayer money and welcome lowest bidder from outside the region or province as with Site C. Local contractor employee local people that spend their money on the local economy. Seems this Government forgets that fact.Good bye Libs.
bcbid.gov.bc.ca/open.dll/welcome?language=En
Could not find the box where you place the amount of the bribe. Maybe you can find it P Val.
have to hit the dark web for that page Sparrow.. its under Governments for sale ;)
* BC Liberals’ stance on donations an insult to voters – Globe and Mail – March 9th
“Most of the commentary on the appalling state of vital democratic tenets in B.C. has focused on the obscene degree to which the wealthy, through donations primarily to the governing Liberal party, have an outsized role in the outcome of elections. The rich also have exclusive access to the highest power in the province, Premier Christy Clark; all that is required is a healthy donation, say $10,000, to attend a private function at which Ms. Clark is the prized attraction. It is an unconscionable situation that wouldn’t be allowed in some tinpot dictatorships. Of course, B.C. also encourages foreign donations. Some companies, such as U.S.-headquartered Kinder Morgan, have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Liberals, which a suspicious person might suggest was an investment that paid off. The company got its pipeline approval, which depended, in part, on the B.C. government’s okay.”
* The ‘best government money can buy’: How B.C.’s donor system is at odds with most of Canada – The National Post March 7th
* Elections BC Investigating allegations that the provincial Liberal party accepted illegal political donations through lobbyists March 6th…RCMP to investigate by Mar 10th, 2017
* British Columbia: The ‘Wild West’ of Canadian Political Cash,
New York Times, January 13, 2017
* B.C. Liberal corporate backers sure win a lot of public contracts – The Province, October 30, 2016
“Martyn Brown, chief of staff to former premier Gordon Campbell, “Donations make the government stand up and listen and anybody who pretends otherwise is not telling the truth.”…a 2014 core review into Partnerships B.C. noted: “More than half of the contract files reviewed did not contain adequate documentation such as the justification for hiring the successful contractor, the reasons for direct awarding contracts to individuals and small firms or the rates paid.”
You overlooked the event where it cost 10k for a little meet and greet with Horgan that was reported on Global News.
If the liberals are guilty then so are the ndp. The greens do not hold these fund raising events but as a party of one they can survive by returning Elizabeth May’s wine bottles for deposit.
It cost twice that amount ($20,000) to eat at the same table with cash-for-access Christy Clark.
So your point is that CC is twice as valuable as horgan?
I’d much rather have dinner with cash-for-access Christy than with cash-for-access Horgan! Who in their right mind would want to sit with a depressing man like Horgan during dinner? Heck, at least Christy smiles once in a while, Horgan just looks like a grumpy old perpetual loser!
I remember when the NDP were in power and Paul Ramsay was our MLA and Minister of Education. We asked for $28,500 to fix the air quality in North Nechako Elementary and Ramsay called a press conference just prior to the election and announced $1.1 million for a complete rebuild! After the election, they changed their mind and just fixed the air quality. NN Elementary school was closed a few years later and its student population moved to Edgewood Terrace school. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!
So it was a smart move to not waste the million if they knew the school would be closed soon.
So breaking an NPD election promise is wise and acceptable? A good example of the usual attempt to fuzzify and distort factual evidence!
This reminds me of the NDP Harcourt promise that Prince George was going to get the next new BC cancer clinic! We all know how that worked out: Right after the NDP was elected the signs were taken down and Kelowna got the Prince George cancer clinic…..ours came a quarter of a century later thanks to Gordon Campbell!
The BC Liberals closed half the schools in this district, and you bring up something petty like the NDP only fixing the air quality in one school? Your priorities are somewhat misguided, me thinks.
Ya think that declining enrollment might have been a factor in shutting down schools? Duh.
When student enrollment declines by 25% you don’t respond by closing 50% of all the schools… the numbers don’t add up. If they closed 25% of the schools that would have made more sense. But no, they had close almost all of the smaller elementary schools up in the Hart area and then open one huge super school.
When it opened as a elementary school, Heather Park Elementary was the largest elementary school in the province. Hey there’s an idea, close all the smaller neighbourhood schools and pack those kids into a warehouse sized school.
The decisions of which schools to close and the layout of those remaining was made by the local board whose chair at the time was the current mayor of the city.
Only a Dipper would believe that schools should remain open and under utilized!
But half empty school and half empty class rooms would certainly tie in with the BCTF’s constant demands for smaller and smaller class sizes.
Those Dippers, no sense of reality!
Half empty schools is not where we are at HG, overcrowding, and lack of choice as to where parents can enroll their children, is where we are at now with this “by the numbers” Lib-Con funding formula for public education.
ht tps://www.250news.com/2016/09/14/pg-parent-frustrated-with-school-district/
Keep yourself up-to-date on these current issues HG, you seem to be living in the past!
Now here is something everyone seems to be missing, just why is the building in the decrepit shape it is in that it needs to be replaced? It is not that old, there are houses and buildings in town much older and doing just fine. Has the ministry of education been neglecting funds for maintenance? Has the local school board been been neglecting do diligence? Just kick the can down the road and hope no one takes notice.
Why have these questions not been asked?
Maintenance will always be neglected….no matter what industry you’re in..
I’m voting for the guy on the right. What’s his name, Kelly Rhode.?
Thing is, this is about the safest riding the Liberals have – so yeah, the timing is certainly suspect, but why blow a bunch of cash on a riding you are almost certain to win. Why not throw cash around in the too close to call ridings.
I almost think the Liberals are creating a poison pill scenario for the NDP. I read polls are actually showing them pretty close right now, but with a large undecided. If NDP wins, they have to then turnaround and tell everyone – no soup for you – or, admit the Liberal agenda is pretty good and follow through on it.
Thing is, we hear nothing from the NDP of what they would do the same, or differently. They do know Hillary Clinton lost on a “anyone but Trump” platform.
But I find it sad that the left wingers on this site can’t at least bring themselves to say, hey great, we’re getting something we actually need.
And besides, why should the Liberals make announcements like this mid-term. No one can remember any more than 3 months of promises anyway.
ski51, John Horgan, leader of the provincial NDP, made an announcement today that replacing Kelly Rd is a good thing.
As a “left winger”, I believe it is the right decision. The optics are just bad, it needed replacing 10 years ago. Why the big announcement now?
It WAS safe… but why take a chance.. Throw some money that way anyways
Maybe while they’re at it they can add heat to the Burger Bar so the kids can eat there year round.
I’d vote for that! Love that place.
Eye Spy, I’ll second that, haha!
Wish they were still located on central – they were the best burger joint in the bowl. I remember the first weekend they opened she was so apologetic as they were run off their feet and the kitchen was backed up
Or lease a spot for the burger bar in the school. (:
Who Cares if the timing is due to Elections! should be happy about this announcement! always someone who is so Negative!
Comments for this article are closed.