The government will invest $242.7 million in education infrastructure in 2026-27 to help ensure safe and reliable schools.
This represents the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s largest capital budget to date and is meant to address growing demands on the education system and ease pressures relating to aging infrastructure.
“With a 25 per cent increase in our department’s capital budget, we are investing more than ever in reliable infrastructure to help build a brighter future for New Brunswick students,” said Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Claire Johnson. “We know how important learning environments are to student success and are pleased to be building on the work we started last year with new capital investments. Spending responsibly on our infrastructure now is an investment in our future, and on what matters to New Brunswickers.”
The funding includes $9.7 million for new major projects, $4 million for large-scale capital improvements, and $229 million for ongoing projects. In addition to individual school projects, the budget includes funding for modular programs, new equipment, improvements and repairs, and the dust collector program to ensure schools are safe and dependable for staff and students.
Six major capital projects will be initiated in 2026-27:
- three new English-language kindergarten-to-Grade 8 schools in the Oromocto area to replace seven existing schools
- a new French-language school for the Woodstock area
- a new English-language kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school in the Moncton region to replace Forest Glen and Sunny Brae schools
- a mid-life upgrade and addition to École Mathieu-Martin in Dieppe
- a mid-life upgrade and addition to Bonar Law Memorial High School in Five Rivers
- a mid-life upgrade and addition to École Sainte-Anne in Fredericton
One project – the new francophone school in the Woodstock area – has been added based on census data to ensure minority language education rights are protected and promoted, as required under Section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“We are immensely proud of being Canada’s only officially bilingual province,” said Johnson. “It is fundamental to New Brunswick that students from both linguistic communities can access the education they need in the official language they speak. We will continue to provide that, and to perform ongoing evaluations to ensure that these charter needs are met everywhere in the province.”
Projects are identified as priorities annually through the department’s capital planning and evaluation process, using the Quadruple Bottom Line analysis. The department also made public the priority ranking list for school infrastructure projects for 2026-27.
Stable Departmental Infrastructure Priorities
As part of the 2026-27 capital budget, the department has updated the Stable Departmental Infrastructure Priorities project list. This allows district education councils to better determine which improvement projects will be required for their schools in the next five years. Unless there is a significant change in scope or an emergency situation, each project on the list will remain there until it is funded. While there is no guarantee that a project will be approved within a certain time frame, it will not need to be resubmitted by district education councils year after year. The approved projects listed above represent projects from the top of the list, with the addition of the new school in Woodstock.
New projects are added to the list annually. The following projects are included on the current list, with the bottom five being new additions this year:
- mid-life upgrade and addition at Riverview High School
- mid-life upgrade and addition at Oromocto High School
- mid-life upgrade and addition at École Amirault in Dieppe
- mid-life upgrade and addition at Centre scolaire Samuel-de-Champlain in Saint John
- new school to replace Devon Middle School in Fredericton
- new kindergarten-to-Grade 5 school to replace Mountain View School in Maple Hills
- mid-life upgrade at Saint John High School
- mid-life upgrade and addition at École Carrefour Beausoleil in Miramichi
- mid-life upgrade at Woodstock High School
- mid-life upgrade and addition at Princess Elizabeth School in Saint John
- new school to replace M. Gerald Teed Memorial School in Saint John
- new kindergarten-to-Grade 12 school to replace schools in McAdam
- new kindergarten-to-Grade 5 school to replace Montgomery Street School in Fredericton
- replacement for Keswick Ridge School
- addition at Leo Hayes High School