Hello South Jubilee residents,
In the spring of 2020, City of Victoria staff learned that SD61 planned to demolish the Bank street school building within a year. Because of the building’s heritage value, City of Victoria staff met with SD61 to try to persuade them to voluntarily designate the building as heritage. SD61 declined to do so, but agreed to care for the school until November 2020 (CoV Committee of the Whole Report, Oct. 1, 2020).
And then the construction fence went up, where it still stands today.
During this time, the Province has passed the Housing Supply Act (May 2023) and Bill 44 (Housing Statutes Amendment Act, November 2023), which decreed that all municipalities update their zoning bylaws to allow for denser housing, including multiplexes, laneway homes, etc. In the fall of 2025, the City of Victoria produced a new Official Community plan, which designates the South and North Jubilee areas as a Town Centre, in which the OCP envisions, among other elements, “large, purpose-built, and programmed public open spaces (page 81, Victoria 2050 OCP).”
The Province and the City see the need for increased housing and services, and yet in a designated Town Centre, a large school building sits boarded up and surrounded by a construction fence, for six years.
In August of 2024, School District 61 hosted an open house in the Sundance school gym in which residents were presented with three plans and were asked to vote on which of the plans they preferred. All plans included a neighbourhood learning centre and on site childcare. Since then, no plans have been developed or approved.
In March of 2026, the provincial government’s Ministry of Infrastructure produced a financial plan, which “indicated that the final business case for the seismic mitigation of Sundance-Bank Elementary remains under review, pending a funding approval decision (email correspondence with Deb Whitten, June 1, 2026). “
So, after six years, the school plans remain under review. If the Province, the City, and the School Board do not hear from the residents of South Jubilee, it is easy for them to forget about what is happening (or not happening), in our neighbourhood.
Please take some time to write to any, or all of these people and demand action for the people of our community.
Provincial representatives
Premier of British Columbia David Eby — premier@gov.bc.ca
Minister of Education Lisa Beare —ECC.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Minister of Finance — Brenda Bailey — FIN.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Minister of Infrastructure — Bowinn Ma — INF.Minister@gov.bc.ca
MLA Diana Gibson — Diana.Gibson.MLA@leg.bc.ca
School District #61
SD 61 School Superintendent Deb Whitten – dwhitten@sd61.bc.ca
Schoolboard Trustees — trustees@sd61.bc.ca
City of Victoria Representatives
Mayor Marianne Alto — malto@victoria.ca
Councilor Marg Gardiner (councilor for South Jubilee) — mgardiner@victoria.ca
Councilor Matt Dell (South Jubilee resident) — mdell@victoria.ca
Mayor and all councilors — mayorandcouncil@victoria.ca
-Team SJNA