Boards struggle with rising costs: NDP
10-YEAR PLAN:: Cash-strapped schools will need to find money somewhere to pay for higher hydro bills
Rising electricity rates are hurting B.C.’s classrooms by forcing already cash-strapped school districts to consider making deeper cuts in an effort to balance their budgets, the Opposition NDP claims.
Adrian Dix said Monday that B.C. Hydro’s most recent rate increase of six per cent, which came into effect April 1, will this year cost B.C.’s school boards an estimated $6.9 million. The increase is part of Hydro’s 10-year plan, which began rolling out last year.
Dix said the rate increase falls on top of other rising expenses faced by school districts, such as Medical Services Plan premiums, which are not covered by a corresponding increase in provincial funding.
At the same time, the province’s 60 school districts have been directed to find $54 million in administrative savings over the next two years.
“We have to acknowledge this is going to continue over the next couple of years, and the government needs to take action,” Dix said outside of an east Vancouver elementary school. “It is simply not good enough to say that school districts can find the money. Money cannot be found that way, and when you are cutting the money that school districts get at the same time as you are imposing new costs on school districts, it is inevitable that the effect will be felt where most of the money is spent — in the classroom.”
Dix blamed the rising electricity rates on a series of poor decisions by the government, including the “forced” purchase of power from independent power producers, and also the smart meter program.
Cost overruns in the millions of dollars for major projects such as the Northwest Transmission Line have also contributed, said Dix.
“So this is what students are paying for and the government is not acknowledging this,” he said. “What they are forcing school districts to do, is cut the quality of education to pay for hydro policies that fail.”
Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett said he respects the challenge that school boards have to manage but noted the increases amount to “less than one tenth of one per cent” of their overall budget.
And he pointed to two incentive programs, one delivered through B.C. Hydro and one through the government, that offers school districts funding dollars to invest in energy saving devices and systems.
“I think we are doing our part, I think B.C. Hydro is doing its part,” said Bennett.
He said it was unlikely government would consider exempting school districts from paying the rate increases.
“I think it’s a slippery slope to start to consider exempting certain groups,” Bennett said. “As soon as you exempt a certain group ... then somebody else has to pick up the cost.”