Editorial cartoon of a taxpayer facing an oversized school-site receipt gate casting a shadow over a steep hillside lot
Cartoon: the public-school need runs into the taxpayer appraisal gate.
Follow the money: publish the appraisal, the site-selection file, the constraints report and the approval trail.

A new Abbotsford school site may be necessary. Francophone families have fought for years for fair access to French-language education, and the province’s own September 2025 release says B.C. provided $26 million for an Abbotsford Conseil scolaire francophone site acquisition. But a worthy school objective does not suspend the taxpayer test. It sharpens it.

The land record now on the table is stark. Sitka Media reports the site is 3044 Pratt Street, a 12.16-acre parcel that closed in August 2025 for $24.6 million. REW’s transaction history for the same address lists a $24.6-million sale on August 13, 2025, after a $13.5-million sale in January 2022 and a $1.9-million sale in January 2021. REW states that table reflects completed transfers reported to the Land Title and Survey Authority and verified by BC Assessment.

Sitka also reports BC Assessment had valued the parcel at about $9.8 million shortly before the final sale. That does not automatically prove overpayment. Assessed value is not always market value. A public buyer can face constraints that private developers do not. A school district can need a location badly enough to pay a premium. Those are explanations, not receipts.

The receipt British Columbians need is the appraisal. They also need the site-selection memo, environmental and geotechnical constraints, the business case, Treasury Board approvals, conflict checks, and any records showing who knew the property was a likely public acquisition target and when. Those documents would answer the question without slogans: did taxpayers get value, or did a public need become someone else’s extraordinary payday?

The official provincial release named the Abbotsford area and said government provided $26 million for the site acquisition. It did not identify 3044 Pratt Street, did not publish the appraisal, and did not explain how the Abbotsford figure was set. Sitka reports a later rezoning application sought to move the parcel from Country Residential to Institutional use for a K-12 French-language school with integrated daycare.

The political response is predictable, but the underlying question is not partisan. The Conservative Party of BC cited the same Sitka reporting and an Avison Young investment review, saying the property was 3044 Pratt Street and the purchase price was $24.6 million. Former Abbotsford mayor Henry Braun, whose family’s company previously owned the land, told Sitka he viewed the later purchase as a poor financial decision; Conservative candidate Darryl Kropp demanded an explanation. Those criticisms are claims and opinions. The public records are the part that matters.

If the Eby government has a defensible valuation file, it should be easy to show the key non-sensitive parts: the independent appraisal, comparable sales, site constraints, urgency analysis, and approval trail. If the answer is that francophone education rights required speed, say so and show the math. If the answer is that 3044 Pratt was uniquely suitable, show the alternatives that were rejected.

Schools matter. So does stewardship. Paying $24.6 million for land that sold for $1.9 million four years earlier demands more than a press release. It demands the appraisal receipt.

Sources and records