The Strathcona Standard

By Lachlan Konkel

 Little progress has been made to replace the aging Cedar school in Campbell River, despite the premier’s re-election promise during a 2024 campaign stop.

  In 2024, Premier David Eby announced that a re-elected NDP government would deliver a brand-new replacement for Cedar Elementary School, something the school board has been trying to make happen since 2015. He also promised the replacement would account for space lost when the Laichwiltach Family Life Society building on the school’s property was damaged in a fire on July 17, 2024.

  Eby won another term and the NDP formed government in October 2024, but so far they have failed to follow up on their promise, with no word since their narrow victory about how construction will proceed.

  “We were encouraged when Premier David Eby and the BC NDP recognized the need for investment in smaller communities like Campbell River with their campaign promise ahead of the 2024 provincial election,” said a spokesperson for School District 72 in an email to the Strathcona Standard. “To date, however, the promise to rebuild Cedar Elementary has not resulted in construction approval.”

  According to SD72, despite ongoing repairs and maintenance, Cedar Elementary has fallen far behind most other schools in BC when it comes to construction standards, seismic safety, and energy conservation. A seismic upgrade or total replacement has been a longstanding priority of the district for more than a decade, persisting through three boards of education.

  “The project has been one of the top priorities in our capital plan submissions to the Ministry of Education and Child Care and has been identified in our last two long-range facility plans,” said the district. “Cedar Elementary has been submitted for capital consideration in the 2023-2024, 2024-2025, 2025-2026 school years, and will again be submitted for the 2026-2027 school year.”

  Without external funding, the building of a replacement school is projected to cost around $39.7 million in construction costs.

  When Lisa Beare, minister of education and child care, was appointed to the role in 2025, Eby wrote in her mandate letter that capital improvements to schools needed to be a priority. He directed Beare to “Support effective learning for students across the province by working with the Minister of Infrastructure to accelerate the delivery of new and expanded schools in a cost-effective manner.”

  To meet that mandate, the latest budget allocates nearly $3.6 billion in capital funding for 66 schools around BC over the next three years. Cedar school is not on the list.