Amid mounting frustration about delays in rebuilding a Port Coquitlam college razed by fireplace, the town’s mayor is threatening to withhold taxes from the province.
Hazel Trembath Elementary was destroyed in a suspicious fireplace in October 2023. However almost a 12 months and a half later, regardless of provincial guarantees to rebuild, there was no point out of the undertaking in B.C.’s 2025 price range.
“We have been hoping to possibly see one little line merchandise mentioning us,” mentioned Megan MacDonald, whose daughter was in Grade 1 when the college burned down.
She now faces day by day 20-minute drives to choose up and drop her off at a backup college.
“We simply assume that a variety of the pink tape and the paperwork has been actually slowing this down — we’re not a brand new college, we simply needed our faculty again and we thought that possibly issues would get expedited,” she mentioned.
Get day by day Nationwide information
Get the day’s high information, political, financial, and present affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox as soon as a day.
B.C.’s 2025 price range, unveiled Tuesday, laid out $4.5 billion in capital spending on Ok-12 faculties over the following three years, mentioning almost three dozen initiatives by title.
Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West mentioned households within the metropolis are working out of persistence.
He mentioned he’s now taking a look at each instrument at his disposal to stress the province to maneuver on the undertaking.
“The province relies on the town to gather college taxes as part of property taxes,” he mentioned.
“Nicely, possibly Port Coquitlam shouldn’t accumulate college taxes from our residents on behalf of the province if the province can’t even get a college rebuilt in Port Coquitlam. This isn’t rocket science. This shouldn’t be difficult.”
On Wednesday, newly-appointed Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma mentioned whereas it didn’t get talked about by title, there’s cash earmarked to interchange the college.
She mentioned the province could be in contact with the college district “very shortly” about subsequent steps for the undertaking.
“There are some processes that must be accomplished to ensure that us to determine a publicly announceable quantity of funding, however we will verify there’s ample funding throughout the price range for a substitute of Hazel Trembath,” Ma mentioned.
Within the meantime, mother and father like Alaina Milicevic, who has kids Grade 2 and Grade 5, worry that even when the work will get achieved it is going to be too late for his or her households.
“Even when they begin constructing tomorrow we received’t see a college on this website for 2 years, and so the longer it takes for them to approve it the longer that point strikes out,” she mentioned.
“So what are we speaking about now, 2028, 2029? Will any kids who attended Hazel Trembath earlier than the hearth get to attend the brand new college? At this level, it’s not trying good.”
© 2025 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
Source link