b.c. orders defibrillators, naloxone in schools, but cash-strapped districts say there's no money to buy them
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all b.c. schools are now required to have devices to treat heart attacks and overdoses, but cash-strapped districts are frustrated this provincial directive doesn’t come with any money attached.
“we’re not too thrilled about this,” said surrey schools chairman gary tymoschuk. “it’s a great initiative … but we were hoping we would see the funds to go along with that.”
surrey’s 21 secondary schools already have defibrillators and naloxone kits, but that board — which cut student programs this year due to budget constraints — must now find the money to buy each of its 105 elementary schools a defibrillator, with an estimated cost of $2,000 each.
this summer, the education ministry set a new policy that every high school in b.c. must have an automated external defibrillator, or aed, as well as the overdose-reversing drug naloxone by the end of 2025, and all elementary schools by september 2026. how to use the devices and learning cpr will also now be part of the grade 10 curriculum.
the ministry made these changes in response to pressure from point grey secondary students who couldn’t find an aed when their grade 9 classmate had a cardiac arrest in their school, and from the parents of a university of victoria student who failed to get timely medical help after being poisoned by toxic drugs.
over the summer, the vancouver school board put aeds in all 107 of its schools. naloxone kits are being purchased at a cost of $35 each and will be in secondary schools this fall, trustee suzie mah said.
while mah supports putting these “life-saving devices” in vancouver’s schools, she is disappointed the ministry earlier this year rejected a vsb request for $250,000 to purchase the expensive defibrillators plus $50,000 to maintain them.
the board, which has slashed programs such as school lunches due to budget pressures, must dip into its operating budget to finance the aeds.
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“this is coming out of funds that could be used for services for students,” said mah, a cope trustee and retired teacher. “the province needs to fund this properly. and they need to provide training.”
in an email, education minister lisa beare said “first-aid equipment has historically been purchased through operational funding,” and that boards can also use mental-health grants to buy naloxone.
she said questions about how much these devices will cost should be directed to districts, but noted all secondary schools must have them by the end of 2025.
“i have made it very clear: my expectation is that every school district will meet this deadline. the ministry will address inability to meet the deadline on a case-by-case basis,” her email said.
the vsb initially rebuffed point grey student tobias zhang and his friends when they bought an aed for their school last year.
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unlike vancouver, most school districts, including burnaby, richmond, north vancouver and west vancouver, already had aeds in some of their buildings.
surrey put one in every high school in 2019, in response to urging from a mother whose 14-year-old son had an unexpected cardiac arrest. first aid attendants in the schools are trained to use the aeds, and staff routinely check to ensure they’re functional, tymoschuk said.
when asked if school staff across b.c. will now be trained to use aeds and naloxone, beare said the b.c. centre for disease control has provided information to school medical-health officers about “training opportunities” and that there is free training online for naloxone.
beare said districts can decide what brand of aeds and naloxone to buy, how many to put in each school, and where they can be accessed.
it would have been better, though, if the government had set provincewide guidelines for this initiative, argued former vancouver police inspector ken frail, who introduced policies that reduced fatal overdoses and alcohol poisonings in vancouver’s downtown eastside before his retirement in 2004.
ken frail with aed inside richmond oval september 4, 2025.
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the richmond resident has spoken with his local mlas, telling them the education ministry should follow the lead of richmond city hall: it installed defibrillators and naloxone kits in the same display cases, hanging them prominently in civic buildings along with clear instructions for use.
“it makes sense to combine both in a public place, well-labelled and easy to access. a person responding to what they first perceive to be a heart attack may observe the naloxone and reconsider whether that is the cause of the collapse,” he said. “this is the opportunity to say: ‘let’s do this consistently. let’s do this in every school.’ ”
in 2023, frail witnessed an overdose at the richmond oval, but the olympic facility didn’t have any overdose-reversing medication on-site, which left him extremely frustrated. he then worked with richmond coun. kash heed to get naloxone kits into defibrillator boxes in civic buildings.
“i am so pleased with the way they’ve done that,” he said, “but it should not have taken that long to promote a public safety thing.”
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