REGINA – The opposition New Democrats are raising alarm bells about overcrowding at Jack Mackenzie School in southeast Regina.

At a media event outside the school Tuesday, NDP candidate for Regina-Wascana Plains Brent Blakley and Regina Elphinstone-Centre MLA Meara Conway voiced concern over a news report that the library, dance studio and a teacher’s lounge were being used as classrooms at the school.

Blakley said it was “due to overcrowding and underfunding by the current government.”

“Students across Saskatchewan are funded at a lower rate than anywhere in the country, and the Sask Party has failed to build the schools in growing communities. Now we’re seeing the very real impacts of their failures. Scott Moe wants to run on his record. Well, this is his record.”

In a post on social media, NDP leader Carla Beck stated: 

“This is unacceptable. Scott Moe and the Sask. Party fund students at the lowest rate in the entire country. Why should Saskatchewan students have less opportunity? It’s time for change. It’s time to get Saskatchewan education out of last place.”

This latest broadside from the NDP against the Sask Party comes not long after the government, along with school board and city officials, appeared in the Towns area of southeast Regina to announce site selection for a new joint-use elementary school and high school for both the public and Catholic systems. 

The new schools are seen as needed to keep up with demand. Overcrowded schools have been an issue particularly in those newer areas of Regina that have seen a recent explosion in population growth and young families moving in.

Such areas include the Towns as well as Harbour Landing in Regina, where the province has also committed to a new joint-use school.

As for school projects that the province has committed to, Blakley and Conway said the province would honour those going forward. Conway added that the NDP would “fast-track” schools in growing communities such as Jack Mackenzie.