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Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced $200 million for a new health-care centre and secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
The facility will replace Tumbler Ridge Secondary, which is being demolished after a mass shooting that devastated the small northeastern B.C. community earlier this year.
Carney made the announcement Thursday in Vancouver as he unveiled a $5-billion housing and infrastructure fund for local governments, and $50 million to support community infrastructure projects in coastal B.C. communities like Terrace and Prince Rupert.
The Tumbler Ridge project, Carney said, will be funded equally by the province and the feds.
The prime minister said the decision to spend the money came after he and Premier David Eby visited the community shortly after the shooting, which left eight victims dead including the shooter’s mother and sibling, as well as five students and an education assistant. The shooter also killed herself.
“We heard directly from the students, their parents, the teachers,” Carney said. “And we talked about what could be done to begin to help heal from that trauma, that loss, that unspeakable tragedy.”
Carney said construction of the modernized facility will begin this summer, starting with the removal of the local school.
Eby announced in May the intention to tear down and replace the school “as quickly as possible.”
About 160 students across Grades 7 to 12 attend the secondary school, and have since returned to class in portables set up on the grounds of the local elementary school.
Funding for water infrastructure in Prince Rupert
Carney also announced funding to accelerate homebuilding and other major infrastructure projects in B.C., including $50 million to support community infrastructure projects in coastal communities like Terrace and Prince Rupert.
Such projects will include water systems, Carney said.
Prince Rupert, home to Canada’s third-busiest port, has been dealing with ongoing drinking water issues, with boil-water advisories lasting for weeks or even months at a time.
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