The Government of Alberta funds private schools at a rate of 70 per cent of public schools. That’s right. 70 per cent. Despite this, private school Webber Academy still charges between $21,000 and $25,800 per student plus a $6,000 enrollment deposit. During the 2024-2025 year, they took in $21,835,000 from student tuition, and $5,790,000 from government funding.
Legally, there are no for-profit schools that receive government funding. This means that private schools on the government teat need to get creative with their accounting.
A look into Webber Academy’s financial filings reveals connections to West Aspen Holdings, a “charitable” organization with nearly no digital footprint, very modest expenses, and a shared mailing address and former board member with the Webber Academy.
In the 2024-2025 year, the Webber Academy Foundation transferred $3.6 million to West Aspen Holdings, bringing the total since 2018 to over $73 million. This is on top of the $5,530,472 paid by Webber Academy to West Aspen Holdings for rent during the past year. The Calgary Saddledome’s rent equivalent is $1.7 million. Webber is a nice facility, but it’s not nice enough for $5 million.
Aside from the massive yearly donations and rent paid to West Aspen Holdings, Webber Academy runs a tight, austere operational budget. Really, private schools are just like their public counterparts! They’re pinching pennies so the dollars (millions and millions of dollars) save themselves!
It’s unclear exactly what West Aspen Holdings and the Webber Academy are actually saving all this money for.
West Aspen does not spend a significant amount of money on charitable activities, staffing, or seemingly anything else that most other charities might. Instead, they’re sitting on a $70 million slush fund, and even more when accounting for land holdings and other non-cash assets.
Webber is waiting for the rules to change so it can extract its $70 million in pure profit.
While crumbling public schools are forced to turn libraries, science labs, and art rooms into teaching classrooms, Webber Academy boasts a beautiful library with vaulted ceilings and 25,000 books, a state of the art science center, and a 500-seat performing arts theatre.
And it’s an incredible campus. I encourage you to see for yourself the kinds of amenities our tax dollars are paying for. Every child should have access to a high quality and appropriately funded education, but they don’t, and in many cases, cannot even pass admissions. Webber Academy is clear that they “do not offer ELL or ESL support,” and was recently denied a Supreme Court appeal after they challenged a Human Rights Commission ruling that they discriminated against two Muslim students who were denied a prayer space.
We have to ask why the government is funding elite and exclusive preparatory academies while the public system is on life support.
Public funds belong in public schools, not in the slush funds of elite organizations.
-Elle Kay, Edmonton Public School Teacher
