Surrey Schools seeks $5.5B from B.C. to address future growth, overcrowding
Published 10:01 am Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Surrey Schools is asking the province for billions of dollars to help accommodate the district’s student population growth.
At its final meeting of the 2025-26 school year, held June 10, the Surrey school board approved its 2027-28 Five-Year Capital Plan.
The plan requests $5.49 billion from the Ministry of Education and Child Care for 76 major capital projects aimed at addressing overcrowding and future enrolment growth.
Included in this plan were requests for 29 new schools, 19 school additions, 26 site acquisitions, one school replacement and one seismic upgrade, as well as 10 building-envelope projects.
During the meeting, the district’s associate director of planning and demographics, Doug Merry, told trustees that while student growth has slowed from pre-pandemic projections, enrolment is still expected to increase by an average of 700 to 800 students annually over the next decade.
According to district projections, Surrey Schools could reach approximately 87,000 students by 2035.
Merry explained to the board that the growth pressures continue to vary across the district.
He said that some areas including Newton and Fleetwood currently have available space in their schools, however, schools in South Surrey and White Rock remain over capacity.
Secondary schools in all six of Surrey’s district zones are also operating above capacity levels.
In Merry’s report, he shares that on a district-wide level, elementary schools are projected to reach 97.4 per cent capacity by 2035, while secondary schools are expected to reach 112.4 per cent capacity, despite planned additions at several schools.
To help accommodate this future growth, the proposed and approved capital plan identified the need for additional school sites, particularly in South Surrey, Cloverdale, Fleetwood and Surrey City Centre.
During the question portion of the meeting, Trustee Bob Holmes asked Merry how the district arrives at its enrolment projections.
Merry explained that staff use development yield rates which estimate how many students are generated by new housing developments, and then regularly compare Surrey’s figures with those used by neighbouring districts.
“We feel they are in line with what we are seeing on the ground,” said Merry.
Trustee Laurie Larsen raised concerns about the impact school additions, such as modulars, can have on outdoor and shared spaces, noting that adding classrooms adds students and often reduces available play areas for them.
Dave Riley, executive director of the district’s Capital Project Office, said modular classroom funding from the province is intended strictly for instructional space.
Superintendent of Surrey Schools Mark Pearmain also asked about modular classrooms and portables, asking if the ministry will offer financial support in their capital plan towards the moving of portable classrooms.
The conversation about portables has been brought up in prior school board meetings this past year, and Riley shared the response he received from the ministry.
“They have made it very clear that capital funding will not be used to move portables,” he said.
One of the meeting’s strongest appeals came from vice-chair Garry Thind, who argued that current market conditions make this an ideal time for governments to purchase land for future schools.
“As a realtor, I know this is the right time to buy land,” noted Thind.
Riley agreed, sharing that some proposed school sites are now valued lower than they were a year ago.
Thind turned his attention to the rest of the room and called on the district’s education partners, including the Surrey Teachers’ Association, CUPE 738 and Surrey District Parent Advisory Council, to join the board in advocating for additional funding from both provincial and federal governments.
“If the federal government can invest in health care, why not in education?” asked Thind.
The board ultimately voted to approve the five-year capital plan and submit it to the province for consideration.
Surrey Schools’ first 2026-27 school year board meeting is set for Sept. 23.