It's unclear if Richard McBride and F.W. Howay will be affected by recent news that seismic upgrades to all B.C. schools listed as high-risk will take longer than originally anticipated.
At a press conference last week, Education Minister Peter Fassbender addressed why the province's $2.2-billion seismic mitigation program will be completed by 2030 for Vancouver schools and 2025 for everyone else. The original forecast pegged the completion date at 2020.
"When we announced the program, there was a lot of misunderstanding of what it would take to seismically upgrade the projects. What we didn't know is the reality, when you get into it and take down walls and you look at foundations, and all the engineering necessary to achieve that goal," Fassbender told journalists.
The revised date was suggested by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C., a group that's worked closely with the government over the years to roll out the program.
"In the overall scheme of things, I think everyone at the end of the day will be very happy that it's done and that it's still a reasonable time period. In the big scheme of things, we don't see the extra five years being highly significant, considering what is being achieved in that period," said APEG member Graham Taylor.
Meanwhile, the superintendent of the New Westminster school district told the Record he's planning on making some phone calls.
"I want to make sure we're still on target and that the two schools that are due for seismic upgrades will still be done as per schedule," John Gaiptman said.
Fassbender said an issue for the Vancouver School Board has been its inability to bring forward "project definitions that are bathed in good engineering and good science."
Gaiptman said this is not the case for his district, and that the relationship with the ministry is very collaborative.
"We're good at getting all our proposals in on time. There has been no issues between New West and the ministry when it comes to timelines," he said.
McBride Elementary School currently has over 400 students and is on the province's radar for being replaced, while F.W. Howay is in need of some retrofitting.
"The fact is we are learning what high risk means and it keeps changing. What I want to see, as a parent and a superintendent, is work being done at all times to ensure our schools and students are kept safe," Gaiptman said.
