She stopped short of telling them to suck it up but B.C.’s education minister said school districts complaining about lack of facilities funding should have prepared for rules requiring them to become carbon-neutral.

In an email to The Tri-City News, Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said districts have known for two years they would have to start calculating carbon emissions by 2010 and could have used carbon tax refunds to pay for efficiencies that will save money in the long run.

“All 60 B.C. school districts signed on to the Climate Action Charter,” MacDiarmid wrote.

“In return for meeting our carbon reduction targets, boards are being refunded the cost of the carbon tax.

“About $800,000 has already been distributed to school districts and, by the spring of 2011, about $7 million in carbon tax revenues will be returned to boards — revenues that will help pay for energy upgrades and help pay for carbon offsets if they are needed.”

MacDiarmid said no extra money will be provided to help districts pay for costs associated with using a new carbon emission calculator called SMARTTool but board officials will be shown how to use the tool, which measures carbon emissions from electrical, natural gas and fuel, and will get support from the Ministry of Citizen Services

Trustees and school board officials have raised the alarm about the costs associated with the provincially developed SMARTTool, including an 82-cent-per-student fee to cover development costs, and the extra labour required, especially at first, at a time when administrative costs are supposed to be curtailed.

In School District 43, where deficits have been narrowly averted through cost-cutting and school maintenance has been all eliminated because a $5-million annual facilities grant (AFG) wasn’t provided this year, officials are wondering how to pay for the SMARTTool, which is expected to cost $25,000, and carry out projects to reduce carbon emissions.

“There’s a cost to it that’s down loading,” said Rick Humphries, SD43’s secretary treasurer. “We were going to use some AFG money to be able to do some projects to lessen the impact of carbon tax they took that away.”

B.C. school districts’ secretary treasurers are expected to talk about the new SMARTTool at a meeting Friday and the BC Association of School Board (BCASB) officials has been meeting with the Ministry of Citizen Services to clarify expectations.

According to a BCASB bulletin, costs for using SMARTTool are retroactive to July 2009 and school districts will likely be required to set aside funds by June 2010 to cover some of the carbon offsets they’ll be expected to pay for their carbon emissions.

dstrandberg@tricitynews.com