Feb 4, 2025 – Janis Cleugh/TriCity News

Two B.C. ministers toured a new pre-fabricated building at Coquitlam’s Scott Creek Middle School today, Feb. 4, to show the success of the school construction model in the province.

Bowinn Ma, minister of infrastructure, a newly created ministry that’s in charge of building schools, and Education Minister Lisa Beare visited the Lansdowne Drive school with officials from School District 43 (SD43), including Ivano Cecchini, executive director of facilities and planning services, who led the tour, as well as board of education chair Michael Thomas and trustees.

Scott Creek Middle is one of four schools in B.C. that have opened in the past month with pre-fab additions or modular buildings; the other three are in Surrey, Kelowna and Smithers.

At Scott Creek Middle, the new two-storey pre-fab opened up 250 more school seats in the growing neighbourhood and came at half the cost of erecting a new school, Ma said.

In the fall of 2023, the provincial government allocated $500 million for pre-fab additions and modular buildings at schools; Scott Creek’s structure came in at $15 million.

During the tour, the ministers remarked on the bright areas and high ceilings in the classrooms, which also have sliding walls to make bigger, fully accessible learning spaces.

Ma said pre-fabs are different from portables, which often have negative connotations.

“Pre-fabs are a faster and cheaper way to build,” she said at the news conference, adding, “This is a success story. It took half the time and half the costs.”

Read the full article at tricitynews.com.