Bob Mackin
theBreaker.news has learned that the B.C. NDP Minister of Education quietly ordered all schools to install lifesaving devices to treat cardiac arrest and medicine to reverse overdoses.
But school boards will have to come up with the money to buy automated external defibrillators (AED) and naloxone kits themselves.
NDP Education Minister Lisa Beare (left) at the Fraser Valley Addictions & Recovery Hub. (Instagram).
On June 30, Lisa Beare mandated all school districts to have a policy to respond to unexpected health emergencies at schools in their district.
Specifically, each school must have a readily accessible AED and naloxone kit.
The ministry confirmed that there is no dedicated funding available to pay for the equipment or training.
“Funding for these tools come from provincial operating funding that the ministry provides annually to districts,” said a ministry statement to theBreaker.news.
The ministry said that 97% of school districts have at least one AED available and 85% of districts have naloxone in stock. By Dec. 31, all secondary schools must have an AED and naloxone kit. September 2026 is the deadline for all elementary and middle schools to follow.
Vancouver asked province to help pay for AEDs
AED kit in Steveston. (Mackin)
In January, the Vancouver School Board (VSB) unanimously voted to install AEDs across the district, in response to a campaign by Point Grey Secondary students whose classmate died of cardiac arrest. The $250,000 cost was included in the contingency reserve budget, but trustees voted to ask the Ministers of Health and Education to fully fund the purchase, installation, maintenance and training.
VSB chair Victoria Jung learned of Beare’s order from a reporter.
“We’ve already fulfilled our budget requirements, and we have, as a board, approved our budgets,” Jung said. “Where are we expected to take that money from?”
Schools already feeling the pinch
The president of the B.C. School Trustees Association told the province’s finance and government services committee last month that B.C. is second from last in provincial K-12 education spending as a share of GDP.
“Over the past two decades, funding for public education has declined from 15.49% of the provincial budget in 2001-2002 to a mere 7.97% in 2024-25,” Tracy Loffler said.
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