Two years ago, a Camosun College instructor opened a second-floor classroom window 鈥� and the window fell off the building. No one was hurt when the window smashed to the ground that Monday in September 2011, but it was an alarming symptom of a problem across sa国际传媒
When students returned to Simon Fraser University in September, they were greeted by leaky ceilings, algae growing on walls, exposed rebar and garbage cans in halls to catch dripping water. In 2011, a capital plan reported that 53 per cent of SFU鈥檚 buildings were in poor condition.
Our colleges and universities are getting older, and the bill for keeping their buildings operating is getting bigger. With money in short supply, it will take some creative thinking to keep campuses safe and working properly.
Provincial estimates suggest Camosun will need $100 million to fix deferred maintenance at its campuses, but college officials say associated costs will push that to almost $150 million.
The University of Victoria doesn鈥檛 have a similar estimate because of the difficulty of calculating the life expectancy of so many buildings and systems, says Gayle Gorrill, vice-president of finance and operations, but it also has a long list of maintenance projects.
The provincial government gives post-secondary institutions money for maintenance and repair every year, but nowhere near as much as they ask for. For 2013-14, the 25 schools put in project applications worth $200 million, and the ministry approved $46.3 million. Camosun will get $1.7 million and the University of Victoria will get just under $6 million.
According to the Advanced Education Ministry, it has spent $727 million since 2001 for deferred maintenance at colleges and universities. UVic received $67.8 million and Camosun received $25.5 million.
Since there isn鈥檛 enough to pay for everything that needs to be done, schools have to set priorities.
In 2009, the federal government chipped in through the Knowledge Infrastructure Program.
UVic, whose buildings averaged 45 years old, focused on its six oldest buildings and put $21 million from the program and a similar amount from the province toward $42.5 million worth of improvements, such as new windows, upgraded heating and water systems, structural renovations, seismic upgrades and sprinkler systems.
Gorrill says it鈥檚 a matter of setting priorities. Safety is the main one, but then come jobs such as fixing roofs, which both Camosun and UVic are doing with some of this year鈥檚 money. If you don鈥檛 fix the roof, you鈥檙e in for a world of trouble. UVic also put $3.5 million into upgrading its power supply because brownouts were a real possibility.
Solutions are in short supply.
In 2001, a Canadian Senate committee warned: 鈥淭he deferred maintenance problems of universities have not vanished and are certain to worsen over time. Left unattended, the problems will clearly become more costly.鈥� It pegged the cost at $3.6 billion.
It pondered several suggestions, but those that promised to raise the most money all involved asking the federal and provincial governments for billions of dollars. Since then, few new ideas have cropped up.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a big challenge and a big challenge that isn鈥檛 going to go away,鈥� Gorrill says.
Although universities are hoping for another instalment of the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, the reality is that governments aren鈥檛 going to come up with the billions the universities need.
Instead, as Gorrill says, post-secondary institutions have to work with governments to set priorities so work gets done at what she calls the 鈥渙ptimal鈥� time: When it does the most good and before the price gets out of hand.
That could mean just making sure the roof doesn鈥檛 leak and the windows don鈥檛 fall off.
