Trustee requests review of board’s hydro costs

Public school board trustee Ron LeClair has requested a costing of the Greater Essex County District School Board’s total electricity bills for the past three years with an eye to plugging a hole in the budget.

Board administration is currently compiling those numbers.

“I asked for three years as a starting point with electrical costs having dramatically gone up in the last 12 to 24 months,” said LeClair, the vice-chair of trustees. “I wanted to get an idea of the impact on the board’s budget.

“If it does show significant increases, I wanted us to use that information to lobby the province for higher funding for utilities.”

LeClair said the province did include more money for utilities in last year’s budget.

“The percentage increase doesn’t come anywhere near the actual costs,” LeClair said.

He added the board is no different than Ontario’s residential and business customers when it comes to the burden that rising electrical bills are placing on its operational costs.

While no one is having to choose between paying the electrical bill and buying food, as some Ontario residents are doing, LeClair said the board has to make up the shortfall between funding and actual costs.

“That’s money we could be using for programming,” LeClair said.

He added that the board has been working to trim electrical and water costs while reducing its carbon footprint.

With the province set to introduce cap-and-trade regulations early next year, school boards expect to take another hit on gas heating costs.

“We’ve undertaken significant steps on the environmental side to minimize our costs,” LeClair said. “We’re doing what we can.”

The board has replaced all of its old lights — its biggest single electrical cost — with LED bulbs, which has resulted in an annual savings of 2.3 million kilowatt hours.

There is also an annual energy conservation challenge involving dozens of schools.

In 2015, the challenge resulted in the saving of 844,000 kilowatt hours and 20,130 cubic metres of water. That represented $200,000 in savings for the board.

A year ago, the board also signed a 20-year deal with Franken Solar Americas to install solar panelling on 25 more school roofs. In exchange, the board will receive an annual dividend of between $250,000 and $300,000 for the next two decades.

Those panels will produce enough energy to power 600 homes annually.

The deal means the board now has more than 30 schools with solar panels on the roof along with two wind turbines.