The City of Courtenay has launched the Safe and Active Schools (SAS) program in partnership with School District 71. This program aims to improve safety for students travelling to and from school, and encourage more students to walk, cycle, or use other more active and sustainable travel options.
The SAS program directly supports City-wide goals set out in the City of Courtenay’s Official Community Plan and Transportation Master Plan.
Safe and active school travel offers many benefits, including:
- Reducing congestion and vehicle speeds around schools, which improves student safety.
- Lowering greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, helping the City meet its climate goals, and ensuring cleaner air in the vicinity of schools where children gather.
- Helping students develop healthy habits that will last a lifetime.
In 2024, the City rolled out a new traffic safety program which reduced speed limits on all City streets within a 500-metre radius of School District 71 schools to 40 km/hour. Thirty km/hour limits still apply in designated school and playground zones during posted hours. The SAS program is another traffic safety initiative undertaken by the City of Courtenay aimed at improving road safety for children and families.
What is the Safe and Active Schools program?
Over the coming months and years, schools in the City of Courtenay will participate in the development of Green Community Canada's School Travel Planning program. This process involves working directly with each school (including students, administration and families) in the City of Courtenay to identify barriers to safe and active school travel. The next step would be recommending a range of actions to address these concerns through programs, built environment improvements and policies.
The SAS project team will help with the data collection process, identify infrastructure improvements, lead interest holders through the process, and collaboratively create action plans that reflect local issues and proposed solutions.
To meet program goals, all SAS travel action plans will use the six Es of school travel planning:
In addition to action plans that will encompass infrastructure, education and programming recommendations, the project team will develop a Recommended Routes to School map for all participating SAS schools. This map will indicate preferred walking and cycling routes to school based upon existing built environment conditions as well as feedback from the school community.
Participating schools
Over the next three years and based upon expressed interest and identified need, the City will engage with up to three elementary and secondary schools each school year to identify and address barriers to active school travel.
The first three elementary schools selected to be part of the SAS program in the 2025-26 school year are École Puntledge Park Elementary, Courtenay Elementary, and Valley View Elementary schools. You can view the locations of these schools on the map below:
How to get involved
If you are interested in having your school participate in the SAS program, please contact the staff at your school to discuss how and when your school can participate.
School community survey
Courtenay Elementary, Ecole Puntledge Park Elementary, and Valley View Elementary have been selected to take part in the City of Courtenay’s Safe and Active School Program. We want your input on how to make walking, biking, and rolling to and from school safer and easier for everyone.
A survey was open in December 2025, and another survey is coming soon. Results from public consultation will be shared at an open house on March 12, 2026.
To share transportation concerns or request specific traffic safety improvements around local schools, please contact the City of Courtenay at transportation@courtenay.ca.
Next steps
Final community open house: On March 12, 2026, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the gymnasium of Ecole Puntledge Park Elementary School, the City of Courtenay and Urban Systems hosted a Safe and Active School Travel (SAS) Program open house. This open house will provide a summary of the results of the public consultation gathered in October 2025 about safe and active school travel at the three participating SAS program schools.
School Walkabouts: In the fall of 2025, school and community walkabouts were held at the three participating SAS schools. These walkabouts were on-the-ground observational tours of the built environment around schools, and offered an opportunity for students, school administration, and members of the school community to provide feedback on the issues and opportunities that they see around safe and active school travel. The Parent Advisory Council at the participating SAS schools coordinated local representation and scheduling of the walkabouts.
Related links
- Engagement and Preliminary Results Report [PDF/532KB]
- Traffic safety | City of Courtenay
- Arden School safety improvements - Councillor McCollum - council meeting, January 11, 2023
- Transportation Master Plan
- Official Community Plan
Project timeline
- School and community engagement – Fall 2025
- Draft recommended routes map and action plan – Fall/winter 2025/2026
- Final recommended routes map and action plan – Winter 2026