Nova Scotia lacks planning for schools, risk plans for infrastructure:auditor

By Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia approved a new $21 million, Halifax-area school despite evidence it wasn’t needed, the auditor general said Wednesday as he found the province is doing a “poor job” of schools planning.

“No one in government can appropriately explain why this school is being built,” auditor Michael Pickup says in his November report.

He says there was evidence the Education Department had concerns about the impact a new high school approved for Eastern Passage would have on existing schools in the area.

He says a 2010 report for the Halifax Regional School Board indicated there was no need for the school, and a 2007 report suggested one fewer high school would be feasible for the area within 10 years.

“Although no evidence of further consultation or detailed plan could be provided by the department, the government announced plans for a new school in April 2012,” says the report.

The report says 2015 enrolment for nearby Cole Harbour High and Auburn Drive High show the schools are at just over 70 per cent of their capacity — a figure that will drop below 50 per cent when estimating enrolments in 2018 after the new Eastern Passage school opens.

“The school board will now have to make difficult decisions regarding the future of multiple schools at all levels across the region to avoid redundant space rather than focusing on other areas in need of attention,” says the report.

Pickup said he is disappointed the department has indicated it won’t review the decision.

The report says the decision is an example of the lack of attention paid to capital planning in education. Pickup says auditors found little information in the department on the general condition of 400 schools and no long-term plan for the provincial school system.

“This results in inconsistent and potentially poor decisions, as was evident in our testing,” says the report.

The report also says four school projects were approved by cabinet at a cost of $63 million, although they ranked behind other unapproved projects based on committee assessments. The projects included new schools in Bridgetown and Tatamagouche and renovations to schools in Truro and Wolfville.

Pickup points out that beyond the information provided by the school assessment committee, cabinet’s rationale for approval isn’t known.

The report also reviewed critical infrastructure and says the province lacks planning to ensure safety and resiliency in areas such as transportation, communications and utilities.

It says cabinet has not assigned responsibility for the critical infrastructure program and hasn’t identified all of the operators of systems that could affect the province. There is also no implementation plan for the government to meet its commitment to the National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure.

As an example, the report says no risk assessment or protection plan has been completed for the Canso Causeway and swing bridge, which is a critical transportation link to Cape Breton and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Figures show 8,300 vehicles use the link each day, a fifth of them trucks. Two freight trains pass through each day and there are 2,050 passages by marine traffic through the link’s canal each year.

“Alternative transportation methods would need to be identified if the causeway was unavailable,” says the report. “A prolonged disruption would impact distribution networks relying on transportation over the causeway, such as food and medicine.”

Because most critical infrastructure is privately owned, the report says partnerships are needed between all levels of government and the private sector to ensure stability.

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