The provincial government has announced it will tear down the secondary school in Tumbler Ridge that was the site of a mass shooting in February, and replace it with a new one at a different site.

Soon after the tragedy, Premier David Eby told the community students would never have to return to the school.

Speaking to the press in Victoria Thursday, Eby said the decision to tear down the old school and build on a new site came after the local school board consulted with the community.

“They took a very cautious approach, recognizing that people had been through an incredibly traumatic event, of approaching people one-on-one, reaching out to families directly, educators directly, and small groups to inform themselves about what the desired outcome was, as opposed to a big town hall or these other kinds of approaches,” he said.

“So it was a lot of work for the school board to do this, and what they heard overwhelmingly was that the students, the educators, the staff, and others wanted to move to a new school at a new location.”

B.C. Minister of Education and Child Care Lisa Beare said the community was overwhelmingly in favour of building an entirely new facility.

“This is understandable for a community of this size where everyone knows each other’s names, and the site is visible from every corner of the downtown core.”

Eby says the federal government has committed to work with the province to cover the costs, which include the removal of the old school, the rehabilitation of that site to something that works better for the community, and the design and construction of the new school.

“We don’t have estimates on any of that yet to share,” he said.

“The federal government has committed that this will not come out of funding that was intended for other communities or other projects. This will be a separate line item for them, and it will be for the provincial government as well.”

The premier says students will remain in portable classes for an “extended period,” but this would have been about the same whether a new school was built or the old one rehabilitated.

Five pupils and an educational assistant were killed at the school in the Feb. 10 attack, which came after shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar shot dead her mother and half-brother at their home.

— With files from The Canadian Press