The Calgary Board of Education said they expect future emergent and unplanned building failures due to the province’s elimination of specific maintenance funding.

Based on publicly available information shared by Alberta Education and Childcare and presented during the April 21 Board of Trustees meeting, the CBE has been made aware that while Operations and Maintenance funding will be increasing by five per cent, Infrastructure Maintenance and Renewal funding has been eliminated.

Based on the changes, the money the district is receiving through Operations and Maintenance will not cover the funding previously available through Infrastructure Maintenance and Renewal.

“It’s less by approximately $6-7 million,” CBE Superintendent of Finance/Technology Services, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Treasurer, Brad Grundy said, something that concerned Trustee Patricia Bolger, who asked the superintendent what impact the decrease will have on CBE infrastructure.

“We too have a similar concern about how we’re going to manage this new operations and maintenance program,” Grundy said, turning the question to Superintendent, Facilities and Environmental Services, Dany Breton.

Essentially, Breton said, considering funding increases and decreases across the board, CBE will have a 20 per cent reduction in their ability to invest in the maintenance of existing schools.

“We can expect an increase in emergent and unplanned building failures. Those kinds of events, they’re more disruptive and they’re also more expensive to attend to and the replacement or the repair of that system, will demand more time and effort from staff,” he said during the meeting.

“That, in a nutshell, is what we can expect.”

Infrastructure maintenance issues top of mind for trustees

For both Trustee Susan Vukadinovic and Board Chair Laura Hack, the decrease is warrants further attention.

Vukadinovic said that as it stands, CBE is already strapped for maintenance funding, having to move instructional dollars to keep schools running.

“Far too many of our schools have long repair rate lists that include urgent issues relating to boilers, boarded up, windows, roofs and elevators,” she said during the meeting.

“We have play fields with swamps due to improper drainage. I hear directly from children and youth who tell me they try to hold it in until they get home from school each day because the bathrooms in their schools are over 70-years-old, never renovated and students feel like they are places to be avoided.”

With each passing year, already patched together issues will continue to compound, Vukadinovic said.

“It’s something our board will have to continue to discuss, because things are literally reaching a breaking point.”

With 60 per cent of the CBE’s schools more than 50-years-old, Hack said that the funding development is worrying.

“We don’t get to decide when we do replacements or when we do major modernizations and now having even further reduction on the funds that we can put towards maintenance and renewal within our system is extremely concerning,” she said.

LWC has contacted the province with questions about the funding removal, and will update the story once a response is received.

Overall budget trending positively ahead of finalization

With a nearly-60 million dollar uptick in funding on top of new complexity teams, things are looking up for the 2026-27 school year, according to CBE administration.

Ahead of official budget finalization and submission in May, the CBE Board of Trustees and superintendents team are both feeling relatively positive for the 2026-27 budget.

In the Budget Assumptions Report (BAR) presented during the April 21 Board of Trustees meeting, CBE Chief Superintendent Joanne Pitman welcomed recent funding changes and steps the provincial government has taken, something she echoed during the meeting.

“As we plan for the year ahead, we remain guided by our mission values and the board’s priorities of achievement, equity and well being. These foundations continue to anchor our work and advance the education plan throughout the budget development process and our commitment remains steadfast to make thoughtful, data driven and student centered decisions, to support strong learning outcomes and high student achievement and to ensure that our staff have the resources needed to support every learner as well to steward public funds responsibly so our system continues to operate smoothly,” she said.

“The increased investment CBE will receive will have a material and meaningful impact on our system. The assumptions outlined today position us to develop our annual budget, steward public dollars, responsibly advance the board’s priorities and ensure every learner is supported to succeed.”

As budget development continues, CBE is committed to make thoughtful, student‑centered decisions that support strong learning outcomes and ensure staff have the resources required to meet the needs of every learner. 

Grundy said that no matter how much or how little funding the district receives, there’s always more they could be doing.

“No amount of funding would ever meet all of the needs in a public education system. There’s always something more you could do to support students and their achievement,” he said during the meeting.

“That said, this (will be) a very positive budget in terms of teaching and learning in CBE classrooms and schools. Funding is up $59.9 million and we have new classroom complexity teams where we received $35.4 million, which means 118 additional teachers and 236 additional educational assistants.

Grundy said that though any budget couldn’t meet every need, the 26-27 budget is certainly on the right track. This time last year, Grundy said, the board saw a modest surplus though carefully monitored expenditures, something that is set to continue this year.

“We are not expecting to have to dip into our savings, our operating reserves, to balance the budget. Even with the increases of staffing in schools we can balance our budget and that will stand us in good stead going forward,” he said.