$26.6M expansion for La Broquerie DSFM school adds 16 new classrooms, industrial arts program

A La Broquerie school added a new classrooms, a new gymnasium and its first dedicated industrial arts and music space as part of its competed expansion project.

Staff from École Saint-Joachim, under the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, unveiled 16 new classrooms and six new specialized spaces, as part of the expansion’s official inauguration on Friday. The project began in 2022 and cost $26.6 million, with $783,000 from the federal government and the remainder funded by the province. The students moved into the new expansion in December 2024, which added 46,000 feet and renovated 9,300 ft of space.

Division assistant superintendent Luc Bremault said the kindergarten to Grade 12 school expansion comes at a crucial time when both the demand for French education and the rural municipality’s population have grown.

“There’s a population boom, and we need to be answering the call here for all students who want to learn in French,” he told The Carillon.

The Rural Municipality of La Broquerie’s population was 6,725 people in 2021 and rose by 10.7 percent from 2016, according to 2021 Statistics Canada census data.

Bremault used to be the school’s principal and remembers not having enough space to offer the course and classes needed to supports students. Nearly 15 years ago, he said parents began asking for music, industrial arts and home economics programs because none existed.

To accommodate the large classes and lack of space, the school added 12 portable classrooms to fill the need, he said. The addition of the new classrooms means the portable units won’t be used, Bremault said.

He noted École Saint-Joachim is one of only two schools in the division that has a dedicated space for industrial arts. The La Broquerie school’s addition is an key step for equity in French language education, Bremault added.

“It’s very important because these are basic skills, like cooking, sewing, woodworking and this STEM lab. These are 21st century skills as we like to call them.” Bremault said.

Having a larger gym space allows for more teams to practice simultaneously and for different physical education classes to share the facilities, he said.

Manitoba’s education minister Tracy Schmidt said the province knew there was a need for the larger spaces at the school because of the rising population in La Broquerie.

“We need to support this growing community. We need to support French language services and access to education in Manitoba, and this project is a great example of that,” she told reporters.

Schmidt said when French-language schools, such as La Broquerie, are full, that means students might not have access to learning in French and developing their language skills.

Bernard Lesage, the division’s school board chair, said the need for permanent classroom spaces became clear when portables started filling up. He said moving students out of the portable classrooms will help improve the learning environment.

“It’s not what students expect when they go to school, to have to walk outside to go to class and put on their coats to come out of class,” Lesage said, noting that having industrial arts and home economics classes in the same building makes the space more inviting.

He said the expansions fills La Broquerie’s needs for now, but he expects student enrollment to continue growing.