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CBE also has a history of inaccurate bookkeeping. In 2018, a provincial audit of the board found that CBE had made a $9.1-million accounting error. According to the financial review, the board recorded these as instructional costs, when in reality they were costs incurred for office space. The board’s public reaction was that they were “happy to comply” and that the “operational review didn’t raise any substantial issues.” I would say that inaccurately recording $9.1 million is a substantial issue.

Diving into office space concerns, in 2010-11 the board locked themselves into an expensive, 20-year lease that they are financially unable to exit. The total remaining lease payments are valued at $144,582,000, an average of over $12 million per year. Of this, almost $36 million is interest. This $144.5 million that CBE continues to owe on its lease far exceeds the valuation of the building, which is valued at $139,510,672. To be clear, CBE is using taxpayer dollars to pay for rental costs of its district office that are far beyond what Calgarians should expect a public body to be paying. Every dollar that goes into expensive leases, accounting errors and budgeting problems is one less dollar to spend in the classroom.

It would be an understatement for me to say I am concerned.

I expect all school divisions to prioritize their students as they make fiscal decisions. When boards across Alberta, such as Fort Vermilion School Division, are finding efficiencies in their overhead and looking at ways to direct as many dollars as possible into classrooms, there is no reason why Alberta’s largest and most financially sound board can’t do the same.