Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced Thursday that 16 more school projects in Calgary are being fast-tracked through the provincial government's Schools Now program, part of a nearly $9-billion initiative to create 200,000 student spaces across the province.
41 projects advanced provincewide
Nicolaides revealed that 41 projects are being advanced throughout Alberta under Schools Now. Of these, 19 will move directly into the construction phase, while 22 will enter the design phase. Once completed, the new schools will deliver more than 39,000 new or upgraded student spaces.
"These are active school projects that are underway, and with our new acceleration process, these projects are ready to move up to the next stage of development," Nicolaides said in an interview. "Some are moving right into the construction phase, others are moving into the design phase. Ultimately, it means these schools are going to be built a lot faster than originally anticipated."
Schools Now launched in September 2024
The Schools Now program launched in September 2024 with an $8.6-billion budget to build new schools or modernize existing facilities. The province aims to add 200,000 student spaces "as quickly as possible," according to Nicolaides, driven by ballooning student enrolment across Alberta.
The space crunch has been especially acute in Calgary, where public and Catholic school boards face unprecedented registration numbers amid rapid population growth. In the 2024-25 school year, the Calgary Board of Education operated at a 93 per cent utilization rate, with 150 of its 250 schools at capacity. While enrolment growth flattened last school year, the CBE's student body still reached its largest ever, with more than 142,400 students attending Calgary's public schools.
Projects target underserved communities
In a statement, a CBE spokesperson said the fast-tracked projects will help address enrolment pressure in areas of the city currently underserved by existing school capacity. "These projects are in communities that need additional learning spaces to help address ongoing enrolment pressure," the statement read. "The CBE looks forward to working closely with the Alberta government to keep these projects moving forward and ready to welcome students."
The new Calgary schools will include both elementary and junior high grades. Nicolaides noted that Schools Now aims to cut roughly nine months off project timelines by overhauling Alberta Education's previous approval process. "Based on our previous process, we typically did not advance a school project mid-year," he said. "In the past, a project only advanced through our development stages — planning, design and then construction — once a year, during the budget process."
Timelines accelerated by nine months
By fast-tracking projects mid-year, the government expects to significantly reduce wait times for new schools in rapidly growing communities. The 16 Calgary projects are part of a broader provincial push that also includes schools in Airdrie, Cochrane, and Canmore, as announced previously.
