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The out-of-pocket cost of sending a child to public schools in Alberta nearly tripled in five years as boards became increasingly dependent on fees to meet their budgets, according to new figures from Statistics Canada.

Parents around the province shelled out an average of $240 per student in 2012 to cover the cost of mandatory charges levied by all school districts — public, separate and francophone — for everything from busing to textbooks.

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In 2008, the average fees were just over $80 per child.

By comparison, fees levied by school boards elsewhere in Canada rose by a modest 28 per cent over the same time period to just over $54 per child.

Liberal critic Kent Hehr said he wasn’t surprised by the fast-rising fees and the fact that Alberta parents pay nearly five times more than the average in other jurisdictions around the country.

“This government nickels and dimes its residents to death with user charges despite its much-touted claim of offering them a tax advantage,” Hehr said.