Waterhen Lake First Nation opens $15-million temporary school
The Saskatchewan First Nation’s new modular school restores K–12 classrooms after a 2024 fire destroyed the previous building.
Waterhen Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan has opened a temporary school built with $15 million from Indigenous Services Canada, restoring a local learning space after the community’s previous school was destroyed by fire in 2024.
The facility is made up of 17 relocatable modular units. It includes kindergarten-to-Grade-12 classrooms as well as space for Head Start and daycare programs, and is expected to serve 237 students.
The federal department and First Nation said planning and design work for a permanent replacement school is continuing. The temporary building is meant to keep education and early-childhood services in the community while that longer-term project moves ahead.
The opening marks the return of a dedicated local school facility, but it is not the completion of the permanent rebuild.
Source: Government of Canada announcement, published October 22, 2026.
Illustrative photo: Ivan Aleksic / Unsplash licence. Cropped and resized.
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