Tumbler Ridge Rebuild
Federal and B.C. governments commit $200M for Tumbler Ridge school, health care after shooting
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Key Points
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Police have said the Feb. 10 attack involved Jesse Van Rootselaar first killing her mother and brother at their home, then walking to the school and shooting five students and an educational assistant before killing herself—an incident that left eight people dead.
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Carney described the infrastructure deal as delivering on voter “mandate” language, saying: “Canadians gave our government a clear mandate to build a stronger country – one where people are empowered with more opportunities, lower costs, safer communities, and homes you can afford.”
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The housing portion of the federal-provincial agreement is described as including not just fee reductions, but also a supply-expanding mechanism to “convert unsold new condos into affordable housing,” alongside investments in items like hospitals, transit, and community centres.
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In addition to ordering the replacement, Eby said the province and Ottawa would not “divert[] education funds from other communities” to pay for Tumbler Ridge’s new school—addressing concerns that the project could come at the expense of other districts.
The federal and British Columbia governments will spend $200 million to build a new high school and modernize a health centre in Tumbler Ridge — the remote mining town of 2,400 where a mass shooting killed eight people on February 10, The Globe and Mail reported. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier David Eby made the joint announcement on June 18, with Ottawa and Victoria each contributing $100 million.
The February attack, carried out by 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, is Canada's deadliest school-related shooting since the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, Nanaimo News Now reported. Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and 11-year-old half-brother at home, then walked to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and shot five students and one educational assistant before killing herself. Twenty-seven others were injured.
Students Will Never Return to the Shooting Site
After the attack, Eby promised students would not go back to the school where the shooting happened. The roughly 160 displaced students have been using a portable campus at the local elementary school since February. Demolition of the old secondary school building is set to begin this summer, CKPG Today reported. Construction on the new school starts at the same time.
Eby also made a key assurance about how the project gets paid for. He said the province and Ottawa would not divert "education funds from other communities" to cover Tumbler Ridge's new school. That pledge directly addresses fears that other school districts in B.C. would lose money to fund the rebuild. Carney said he and Eby personally met with residents, students, parents, and first responders to hear how the community wants to heal.
The Shooter Had a History of Police Contact
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald confirmed that Van Rootselaar had been apprehended for mental health assessments multiple times before the attack. Police had also previously seized firearms from her home. On April 13, leaked screenshots of her YouTube profile circulated online, showing her interest in prior mass shooters. She was 18 at the time of the attack and had been a former student at the school.
$200M Is Just One Piece of a $5.1B B.C. Deal
The Tumbler Ridge funding sits inside a much larger federal-provincial infrastructure agreement worth $5.1 billion over 10 years, Yahoo Style Canada reported. The federal share is $1.6 billion, matched by B.C. The deal targets hospitals, transit, and community centres. It also includes $2.5 billion for B.C. transit projects, including the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension, and $600 million for emergency rooms and urgent care facilities.
A new housing mechanism is also part of the package. The Build Communities Strong Fund aims to cut development charges by up to $40,000 per unit on multi-unit housing projects. A separate program would convert 2,200 unsold new condos into affordable housing through BC Housing. Carney tied the deal to his election mandate, saying: "Canadians gave our government a clear mandate to build a stronger country — one where people are empowered with more opportunities, lower costs, safer communities, and homes you can afford."
Cities Push Back on Developer Fee Cuts
Not everyone supports the housing portion of the deal. Metro Vancouver Chair and Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley argued that "growth should pay for growth," pushing back against the plan to cut development charges. Critics say reducing those fees shifts the cost of new infrastructure from developers to everyday taxpayers. Some urban planners warn this could create long-term budget shortfalls for municipalities, Head Topics Canada reported.
Analysts say Carney is connecting two very different issues — a community's grief and a province-wide housing crunch — into one political package. The federal government projects the broader deal will support 42,000 jobs per year and boost GDP by $95 billion over the next decade. For Tumbler Ridge itself, the immediate goal is simpler: tear down a building tied to trauma and replace it with something new.
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