Two New Westminster school board trustees are urging the provincial government to fully fund automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and naloxone kits after the Ministry of Education and Child Care quietly introduced a mandate requiring them to be installed in all B.C. schools less than two weeks ago.
Trustee Danielle Connolly tells 1130 NewsRadio the requirement will put a significant financial strain on school districts, which are already underfunded.
“There’s the initial cost, the upfront cost of purchasing, which could be in the 10s to hundreds of thousands [of dollars], depending on the size of a school district,” she said.
“And then there’s the ongoing training, the maintenance, the replacements. So there are costs associated with this that cash-strapped school districts are being left to manage.”
Connolly also points out that the new mandate was announced after districts had balanced their budgets for the year.
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“The Minister of Education was expressing an interest in this in January, so it’s very confusing why they would wait until [after] June budgets are passed and submitted to announce this, which would then require funding to implement,” she said.
This comes after students tried to donate an AED to the Vancouver School Board, which the board rejected at the time citing cost concerns.
On July 1, the ministry issued an order amending the School Act requiring all boards to establish a policy to ensure AEDs and naloxone are readily accessible in each school.
In a statement, the ministry confirms the costs associated with the new mandate are expected to come out of the provincial operating funding the government already provides to districts.
It goes on to say that around 97 per cent of districts already have AEDs in some or all schools, and 85 per cent stock naloxone.
Connolly points out this isn’t the only instance of new requirements being introduced without increased funding to fulfil them, giving mandated Holocaust education as an example.
The government says all secondary schools must have AEDs and naloxone kits installed by Dec. 31, 2025, and elementary and middle schools must have them by September 2026.
— With files from Jack Morse.
