B.C. minister defends progress on building more schools in Surrey

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 21, 2025 6:41 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

B.C.'s infrastructure curate has defended her government's advancement connected gathering much schools successful Surrey, adjacent arsenic 2 much schools successful the metropolis volition displacement to a staggered docket to woody with overcrowding.

Fraser Heights and Sullivan Heights secondary schools volition displacement to having class times adjusted to commencement earlier, and end later, successful bid to compression a 5th artifact of classes into the regular schedule.

That means 8 schools successful B.C.'s largest schoolhouse territory volition person staggered schedules successful total, arsenic the Surrey School District's long-running overcrowding problems proceed to pb to genitor frustration.

District officials person defended the signifier of extending days and accidental unit person been capable to negociate the workload, portion the curate liable for gathering much infrastructure has said astir $1 cardinal has been spent connected caller schools and schoolhouse additions successful Surrey since 2017.

WATCH | Parents outraged implicit staggered schoolhouse days: 

Parents, however, accidental that officials aren't moving accelerated capable to woody with a occupation that has festered for years, and students' futures are getting caught successful the crossfire.

"The inconsistency is wholly disruptive and the inequity, and deficiency of consciousness of the inequity, is astounding," said Cindy Dalglish, whose girl studies astatine Salish Secondary School, which was connected staggered commencement times past year.

"These decisions are not pupil centred astatine all."

Dalglish said the inconsistency successful schoolhouse starting times means that parents person to juggle enactment responsibilities to get their kids to school and extracurriculars and survey schedules are thrown successful flux daily.

"We already have, you know, a precocious level of program coming into them," the genitor said. "She is 1 of those go-getter kids that has truly hard, hard classes .... they're cramming much into these [classes] this time."

Sally Huang, the president of the Fraser Heights Secondary genitor advisory committee, said that the staggered commencement times were besides hard connected staff, adjacent arsenic she acknowledged staggered commencement times were preferable to online learning.

"The Surrey students' colonisation maturation is not caller news," she said. "It has been steadily increasing [over] the years, particularly since COVID and a batch of young families, we heard, moved present looking for affordable housing.

"So wherefore hasn't the authorities kept up with that reality? Why hasn't determination been a timely superior concern successful caller schools and classrooms?"

Year-round schooling being considered

Terry Allen, the vice-chair of the Surrey Board of Education, defended the staggered commencement times, and commended unit for dealing with the added workload.

Allen said the feedback the schoolhouse committee has received has been positive, and helium was disappointed to larn that parents weren't satisfied with their kids' learning experience.

"The world is, though, that there's truly nary different choice," Allen said of the extended schoolhouse days.

"We don't person capable schools successful Surrey, and if we don't find immoderate mode of creating much abstraction successful the schools we have, it tin lone get worse and surely not better."

WATCH | Terry Allen defends staggered commencement times: 

Allen said that year-round schooling was being fixed superior thought astatine the Surrey schoolhouse board, and that if they failed to person caller schools, everything was connected the table.

"Parents volition person a occupation with it, and I don't blasted them," helium said. 

"Simply due to the fact that the provincial authorities is not providing caller schools, and caller expansions to existing schools."

Minister says billions being spent

B.C. Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma said she sympathized with parents successful Surrey, and that the schoolhouse committee was being originative successful dealing with the overcrowding people.

She said the provincial NDP authorities has invested $6 billion, including $1 cardinal successful Surrey, into caller schools and additions since 2017.

"Recognizing that the concern that Surrey is dealing with is not ideal, determination is anticipation connected the skyline due to the fact that investments are underway to bring virtually thousands of caller seats into the Surrey School District," she said.

In effect to questions astir wherefore the authorities had not moved faster to woody with the overcrowding contented — fixed the NDP has been successful powerfulness since 2017 — Ma said the erstwhile Liberal authorities had not built a azygous schoolhouse successful the 4 preceding years.

She categorized the wealth being spent present arsenic a "massive summation successful investment" since then, and said that if colonisation maturation had stayed consistent, Surrey would really beryllium seeing an excess of pupil seats.

"But the colonisation besides went done this massive increase," the curate said. "So pupil colonisation accrued by 11,500 successful that time. This is an unprecedented colonisation increase, we person not seen these kinds of rates of summation successful B.C. before."

Ma said that a recently-passed infrastructure bill will assistance the authorities streamline projects and get them built faster.

LISTEN | Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma speaks astir overcrowding: