Edmonton’s Muslim community has broken ground on what some are calling the largest faith-based educational development in Canada.
A new $80-million private Islamic elementary school will be built to accommodate over 1,600 students with a growing waitlist of more than 1,500 children registered already.
The project, led by the Edmonton Islamic Academy and supported by Al Rashid Mosque in Edmonton, aims to open its doors by September 2025.
Construction is scheduled to begin this spring once municipal zoning permits are finalized. Ministry of Education approval is expected to follow.
The academy has already acquired and prepared the land for the new school grounds, located on 151st Avenue in northwest Edmonton, about three minutes from the school’s current K-12 facility on 127th Street.
With more than 2,000 students enrolled, administrators of the existing school spoke to CBC News explaining that the demand for Islamic education has far exceeded capacity.
“We do have a well-established Muslim community here. Edmonton has become a destination for Muslim families settling in Canada,” said Noor Al-Henedy, spokesperson for Al Rashid Mosque. “Our re-enrollment rate is almost 100 per cent and the waiting list just kept growing and growing.”
The new campus is designed with Islamic architectural elements, including classrooms facing Mecca, the city hosting the most important Islamic sites in Saudi Arabia.
Principal Abraham Abougouche said the school will also feature small gardens, Quranic inscriptions and contemplative spaces.
“There’s a strong demand for increased classrooms and more faith-based education,” said Abougouche. “Some students have been on the waitlist for almost six years. Parents are just looking for a quality option where they can enrol their children.”
Al Rashid Mosque, Canada’s oldest mosque, has raised nearly $20 million for the school so far and continues to accept donations.
The project is also under consideration for the province’s School Construction Accelerator program.
The growing demand reflects a broader surge in the Muslim population in Canada.
According to Statistics Canada’s 2021 census, 83,015 people in Edmonton identify as Muslim the second-highest Muslim population in Canada after Toronto.
Across Canada, the proportion of Muslims has more than doubled over the past two decades.
In 2001, Muslims represented just 2.0 per cent of the population (579,640 people), by 2021, that number had risen to 4.9 per cent (1,775,715 people), according to Statistics Canada.
In parallel with the school project, Al Rashid Mosque is pursuing rezoning of 34 acres in the city’s land to build additional facilities including an even larger mosque, a high school, a recreational centre and an Islamic (Halaal) commercial complex.