Rebuild the Carihi gym and A-Wing.
Fire destroyed the gymnasium and A-Wing in November 2024. More than 17 months later, the Province has not approved a Treasury Board submission, has not disclosed a project cost, and has not set an occupancy date. Approximately 922 students continue to be impacted by the loss of these spaces.
Where this stands today.
Confirm Treasury Board approval and funding for the rebuild of the Carihi Secondary gymnasium and A-Wing in the 2026–27 capital cycle, and commit to delivering it as quickly as possible, so that students do not lose another school year.
What's happening?
On November 21, 2024, a fire destroyed the A-Wing at Carihi Secondary School, including the gymnasium, drama room, teaching kitchen, multi-purpose room, and adjacent spaces. The cause was accidental and confirmed by investigation in December 2024.
Seventeen months later, the Province has acknowledged the rebuild but has not released a Treasury Board funding commitment, a confirmed project budget, or a target occupancy date. The District has submitted its Project Request and the Ministry has acknowledged it. The decision now sits at Treasury Board.
Fire crews responded to 350 Dogwood Road the night of November 21, 2024. The blaze destroyed the A-Wing: the main competition gym, PE teaching space, drama and stage, teaching kitchen, band room, multi-purpose room, and adjacent classrooms.
The investigation, completed in December 2024, found the cause to be accidental: spontaneous combustion involving cooking oils on fabrics, residual heat after laundering, and inadequate ventilation. There was no criminal cause and no negligence finding.
Framing note: the fire was an accident, so there is no one to blame. That removes a common political excuse for delay. The only remaining question is how quickly the Province chooses to act.
Carihi is not stuck because anyone opposes the rebuild. It is stuck for structural reasons in BC's capital planning system:
No disaster-recovery lane. The provincial capital process runs on five-year planning cycles and has no separate emergency-rebuild stream. A gym destroyed by fire enters the same queue as a seismic upgrade planned years in advance.
Treasury Board is the bottleneck. The Ministry of Education can support the project all it wants. Funding authority rests with Treasury Board, which balances Carihi against hospitals, highways, and housing competing for the same capital pool. Without sustained public pressure, the political cost of delay is near zero.
A four-year high school window is short and formative. At the current pace, students will graduate having spent their entire high school career without a functioning gymnasium, drama space, or central assembly room. They will also miss the extracurricular opportunities that are meant to define adolescence.
Lost time in physical education, performing arts, and community gathering cannot be recovered. Every additional month of delay compounds the harm to students already in school today.
It can be done in 24 months. It has been.
Hazel Trembath Elementary
Port Coquitlam · School District 43
- FireOctober 2023
- Approval~24 months later
- Funding~C$39M
- StatusFunded · in development
- Target openingDecember 2027
Carihi Secondary
Campbell River · School District 72
- FireNov 21, 2024
- Approval17+ months pending
- FundingNot disclosed
- StatusPending Treasury Board
- Target openingNot set
What was lost in the fire
What this looks like, day to day
Timeline
Three ways to help.
Capital decisions track sustained, organised public pressure. Every signature, letter, and meeting raises the political cost of inaction, until the decision is made.
Sign the petition
Add your name on Change.org. Signatures are forwarded to the Minister of Infrastructure, the Minister of Finance (Treasury Board Chair), the MLA for North Island, and the SD72 board.
Sign on Change.org ↗Write a letter
A personalised letter that names a child, a club, or a specific impact counts as a unique constituent contact. Form letters get counted as one signature; personal letters get a response.
Letter template · Minister of Infrastructure
Show up
SD72 public board meetings are open to anyone in the community. Showing up, and bringing neighbours, coaches, and parents, keeps Carihi on the agenda.