INNISFAIL - Facing more than $200,000 in projected carbon tax costs to heat and operate its schools and other facilities in 2023, Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) is hoping for some relief help going forward, says Shawn Russell, associate superintendent of corporate services.
The federal carbon tax price per gigajoule will increase from $2.63 in 2022 to $3.26 in 2023, which school board officials believe will translate into a total estimated cost of $220,000, he said.
“We paid about $100,000 in carbon tax on our natural gas in 2020 and based on our average gigajoule usage that will cost us slightly over $220,000 in 2023. That’s just our natural gas expense on heating,” Russell told the Albertan.
“It is the natural gas we use to heat our buildings and we have 30 traditional schools and a number of other buildings. It doesn’t take long to add up when you look at the size of our buildings and to heat those facilities.
“It has gone up an additional $120,000 from what it was four years ago and it goes up incrementally every year.”
Asked if school fee increases or staff cuts are being considered to cover the $220,000 in 2023, he said no.
The 11,000-student Innisfail-headquartered CESD’s total expenditure on its facilities in the 2022-23 school year will be $10.7 million, including the use of $568,000 in reserves.
The division plans to use reserves to cover the increased cost of heating and operating its facilities, although the use of reserves is not a long-term fix, he said.
“Currently we do have a reserve in place that is helping us to operate but reserves only last so long,” he said. “When those reserves run out we are going to have to look at other ways to off-set that increased cost.
“Right now we are keeping an eye on it and we are hoping that support will come or we will have some way come forward that will help us address that. If we need to make some adjustments we will have to evaluate how we do that.
“We hope there will be some form of relief like they have done for the fuel for our buses. We would like to see some form of relief to address this increased cost.”
Asked if the hope is to have relief from the federal and/or provincial governments, he said, “We would like to see some relief, but where that comes from is really not our decision.”
The division’s bus fleet is also impacted by the carbon tax increase, although the division is eligible for relief on those costs, he said.
“We do receive some relief for the diesel for our buses that we buy,” he said. “They have a formula that they have worked out. If it’s above $1.25 a litre then they have a formula that is in place based on the kilometres that you drive as a school division.
“So we are receiving some support from the government in regards to the cost for fuel for our buses.”
CESD estimates with the carbon tax price per gigajoule set to increase to $6.33 in 2027 the cost to the division will be $450,000.
