When I first moved to Alberta from British Columbia about three years ago, I was surprised by the school fees for high school. The total for the school year was around $400. In British Columbia my father was only paying $50/year and $25 of that was deposit that he would get back at the end of the year. Being low income at the time, that was a tough pill to swallow. (And yes, I am aware there is a waiver system. But that system is very complex, and we could not even fill out the application since we were new to Alberta and they required an Alberta Health number, which we could not get till living in Alberta for some amount of time.)

I was so concerned that I wrote to the Minister of Education with my feelings. Shortly after I received a reply stating how Alberta has the most funding per student in the entire country.

So where is this money? I compare the school fees to British Columbia. I compare the class sizes and see them much larger in Alberta. Numerous schools in Calgary have leaky roofs. Where is all this money that I am being told about?

I really think it’s time for an audit on the School Boards, and also on the cities and the province. I think Albertans will be really surprised to see what a massive audit will find.

Edited to add: Also before I moved out to Alberta, I had never heard of fundraising for school essentials. I see casinos every year at most of the schools in Calgary to fundraise for these essentials.