The provincial government will invest $193.7 million during the 2025-26 fiscal year to help address infrastructure needs in the education system.
This represents the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development's largest capital budget to date and is meant to ease pressures resulting from population growth and aging buildings.
"Our government is committed to ensuring every child has access to safe, modern and well equipped schools that support their learning journey," said Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Claire Johnson. "With our growing population and rising enrolment, these investments in school infrastructure are both timely and essential and will help ensure we have a sustainable education system. And they represent our continued dedication to invest in our youth."
The funding includes $14.6 million for new major school projects; $14 million for the provincewide ventilation program; $2 million for a universal washrooms program; and $163.1 million for ongoing construction projects, equipment, improvements, repairs and the dust collector program to ensure schools remain safe for students and staff.
Eight major capital projects will be initiated in 2025-26 to help address space deficiencies created by overcrowding and to replace and renew aging infrastructure:
- an addition to Saint Mary's Academy in Edmundston
- a new kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school in the Lincoln Heights/Southwood Park/Doak Road area of Fredericton
- a new francophone school in the province's southwest (serving the St. Stephen, Saint Andrews and St. George region)
- a new francophone school in the Sussex/Hampton area
- a mid-life upgrade for Polyvalente W.-Arthur-Losier in Tracadie
- an addition to École Abbey-Landry in Memramcook
- a mid-life upgrade for Polyvalente Louis-J.-Robichaud in Shediac
- a replacement for Inglewood and Grand Bay Primary schools
Funding is also allocated to begin a multi-year program to ensure schools have common security standards.
"This funding will not only expand classroom capacity but will enhance our facilities to better serve the needs of students, teachers and communities," said Johnson. "An investment in our schools is an investment in our students for generations to come."
Two projects - the new francophone schools in the southwest and the Sussex/Hampton area - have been added to ensure minority language education rights are protected and promoted, as required under Section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
"We take great pride in our bilingual status and the duality that exists in the education sector and that has prevailed for many years," said Johnson. "Through our objective tool, we continue to ensure that our students, in both linguistic communities, are able to access their education in their language. Evaluations are continuously performed to ensure that the needs are met, everywhere in the province."
Other projects are identified as priorities annually through the department's capital planning and evaluation process, using the Quadruple Bottom Line Analysis as a tool. The department also made public today the priority ranking list for school infrastructure projects for 2025-26.
"The Quadruple Bottom Line Analysis helps us assess the critical needs of school infrastructure across our province while providing transparency to New Brunswickers about how these decisions are made," said Johnson. "We recognize the significance of many projects to local communities and district education councils and remain committed to collaborating with school districts to address the needs of both students and their communities."
Stable Departmental Infrastructure Priorities
As part of the 2025-26 capital budget, the department has updated the Stable Departmental Infrastructure Priorities project list. This allows district education councils to better determine which improvement projects, if any, for their schools will be required in the next five years. Unless there is a significant change in scope or an emergency situation, each project on the list will remain there until it is funded. While there is no guarantee that a project will be approved within a certain time frame, it will not need to be resubmitted by district education councils year after year. The approved projects mentioned above are a combination of those from the top of the list and new schools required due to population growth, overcrowding and constitutional obligations.
New projects are added to the list annually. The following projects are included on the current list, with the bottom five being new additions this year:
- new school to replace Forest Glen and Sunny Brae schools
- mid-life upgrade and addition for École Mathieu-Martin
- mid-life upgrade and addition for École Sainte-Anne
- mid-life upgrade for Bonar Law Memorial School
- new kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school for Oromocto
- mid-life upgrade for Riverview High
- mid-life upgrade for Oromocto High School
- mid-life upgrade for École Amirault
- mid-life upgrade and addition for Centre scolaire Samuel-de-Champlain
- replacement for Devon Middle School
- replacement for Mountain View School
- mid-life upgrade for Saint John High School
- rationalization study for Garden Creek and Kingsclear Consolidated schools
- addition to École Carrefour Beausoleil
- mid-life upgrade for Woodstock High School
- mid-life upgrade and addition for Princess Elizabeth School
