Auditor general critical of provincial school planning process
Posted Jun 25, 2025 12:47:12 PM.
Last Updated Jun 25, 2025 12:47:17 PM.
Nova Scotia’s auditor general says the provincial school capital planning process needs improvement as enrolment trends shift.
A new report, released on Tuesday, dug into that process, inlcuding the status of government’s plan and conditions at some school facilities.
Kim Adair says a multi-year plan was created by the Department of Education in 2019, but says it doesn’t account for newly needed growth schools.
“For example in the Halifax area there have been six new growth schools announced largely driven by the enrolment increase, and there was very little process involved in that in terms of what location decisions were made,” Adair told 95.7 NewsRadio.
Adair says her office expected to find a robust, evidence-based process but says “that did not exist”.
“We didn’t find solid evidence of political influence, but the fact we didn’t have this evidence to support government’s decisions means there’s room for subjectivity to come into play and possibly political influence,” Adair said.
Adair’s report also found $162 million has been spent on portables and modulars over the past five years in an effort to mitigate enrolment pressures.
The report also that 21 per cent of school facilities did not have a facility condition assessment completed within the past five years as required and that 30 per cent of HRCE school facilities lacked annual updates on school building condition.
“We recommend the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development update the school capital planning process to require Regional Centres for Education and the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial to submit a business case supported by evidence for all new growth schools,” the report reads.
