P.E.I. capital budget makes 'historic commitment' to education, including 3 new schools
CBC
The P.E.I. government will build three new schools in the Charlottetown area to deal with record-breaking population growth, as well as replace the existing school in Georgetown, Finance Minister Jill Burridge said Thursday as she tabled her 2025-2026 capital budget.
Burridge compared the plans outlined in the capital budget to the sweeping changes ushered in by Alex Campbell's Liberal government in 1969, under the Comprehensive Development Plan.
"Once again, we are confronted with new challenges and new opportunities — challenges that include unprecedented population growth over the last decade, climate change, aging infrastructure, and evolving needs in healthcare, education and housing," the finance minister said on the floor of the P.E.I. Legislature.
"The decisions we make today must be guided by a vision that reaches well beyond the present, just as those leaders did in 1969."
The province has set aside $64.9 million over the next five years for two of the new elementary schools, each of which will cost more than $60 million and have room for 650 students.
Burridge said planning will start this year for a new school in East Royalty, to be completed in 2028-2029. To speed up the process, they will replicate the design of the new Sherwood Elementary School.
She said work on a new elementary school in West Royalty will begin in 2028-2029.
Meanwhile, work will begin on a new junior high school in Stratford in 2026-2027, two years earlier than initially announced. The province is budgeting $70.4 million over the next five years for that project.
"Our schools are the heart of our communities, and these investments reflect our commitment to providing students, educators, and families with the tools they need to succeed," said Burridge.
The full list of education projects is comprised of:
The province is also committing millions of dollars to ongoing projects including $4.7 million to complete work at Sherwood Elementary; $54.9 million for Stratford's new high school, now under construction; $53.3 million to complete work at École Évangéline; and $21.8 million to complete the expansion at École François-Buote.
The budget also projects millions in capital spending on health-care projects, including more than $200 million over the next three years to finish the new mental health hospital and addictions treatment centre in Charlottetown.
As well, the province is setting aside $16 million for phase two of the development of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the Island's largest referral hospital, and $34 million to begin work on a new Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague.
Other health-care investments include:
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