B.C. Premier Christy Clark has committed $74.2-million to construction projects to deal with overcrowded schools in Surrey – the province's fastest-growing city – but conceded there may be a need for a new funding model to help the community.

With funding from the Surrey school district, the total amount will be $99.5-million – $74.2-million from the province and $25.3-million from the district – to expand existing schools and build new ones, creating new spaces for 2,700 students.

"I think we're just going to have to find a new way of making sure there are [school] seats for when the kids arrive rather than some of the way we're doing it now, which seems to be little bit after the fact," Ms. Clark told a news conference Friday held in an elementary school in Surrey, about 40 kilometres south of Vancouver.

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Friday's move comes in a politically competitive region of the Lower Mainland, one where the governing BC Liberals and opposition NDP will be vying for seats in the provincial election next May. The BC Liberals hold five of eight Surrey seats while the NDP holds the other three.

During a news conference in Vancouver, NDP Leader John Horgan said Ms. Clark's announcement was an incomplete effort at catching up, and a bid to gain support ahead of the 2017 election.

He said an NDP government would fully fund Surrey's education needs, raising the prospect of finding money from the $100-million prosperity fund that was supposed to be composed of revenues from the LNG sector, but consists of money the government put into it this year.

"What the people of Surrey need is a massive infusion in education capital and that's an investment in the long term."

Schools in Surrey, which is British Columbia's second-largest city after Vancouver, have been so crowded that there have been calls to suspend residential development because growth is generating more students than the schools can handle, raising concerns among parents. Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner, who attended Friday's news conference, has ruled out that idea.

Mayor Hepner said kids are coming to Surrey because the city is providing affordable housing in a region where housing is expensive. "Discussing how we can be ready [for new students] on a more timely basis is probably an ongoing discussion," the mayor said following the news conference.

Ms. Clark said the money will go to expand existing elementary schools, build a pair of new schools – one elementary and one secondary – and purchase land for a new elementary school.

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Completion of the efforts will come starting in fall, 2017, through to the end of 2020.

The total budget for six school projects is $99.5 million of which the province will contribute $74.2 million and the Surrey school district $25.3 million.

Ms. Clark did not rule out further Surrey school-funding announcements in future.

"We're talking to Surrey now about how we might improve the process," Ms. Clark said when asked about some means of funding school expansion in the city ahead of the expected arrival of new students.

Most school districts, Ms. Clark said, are seeing a reduction in student enrolment, but Surrey is an exception "unlike anywhere else in the province" given its growth

Ms. Clark said it's a shame when school construction lags behind student need. "[It's] fantastic that Surrey is growing and [it's] fantastic that the economy here is thriving. One of the upsides of growth is more kids, and one of the complications we have to deal with is how we're going to build more schools to accommodate them when they get to school."

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Shawn Wilson, chair of the Surrey Board of Education, said he was pleased with the money, but that it was a long way from solving the problems.

"This just almost helps us get caught up and it's a moving target," he said. "The people will still come. The schools will be in demand for student spaces and we're just building to catch up."

He said he took heart from Ms. Clark's comments about a new funding approach, saying it would allow schools to be ready as students arrive. He said Surrey will continue to rely on portables as it deals with an overcapacity issue for the foreseeable future.

Outside the school. education activist Maria Myers, who has a pair of young children in the Surrey system, said the Premier's announcement is a start. "It's good, but it's not good enough," she said, noting 7,000 Surrey kids are now in portables.