EDMONTON -- An Alberta Christian educator ordered by the province to allow gay-straight alliances in his schools has responded with a letter from his lawyer.

Alberta Education spokeswoman Larissa Liepins said the letter came Friday afternoon, just hours before a deadline imposed by the department.

Liepins declined to discuss the letter's contents. She said the government would respond on Monday.

"It's a document from a legal counsel, so we have to have our legal counsel review it (first)," she said in an interview.

The letter is from counsel for Pastor Brian Coldwell, who could not be immediately reached for comment.

Coldwell is chairman of the Independent Baptist Christian Education Society. The society runs two Edmonton-area private schools -- the Meadows Baptist Academy and the Harvest Baptist Academy.

Together they total about 200 students.

About 70 per cent of public funding for Coldwell's society comes from the province and Education Minister David Eggen has the option to pull the money for non-compliance.

The board is getting $2.5 million for the 2015-16 school year, most of which is for home-schooling students it supervises.

In late August, Coldwell publicly criticized new government guidelines making schools more inclusive for LGBTQ students. He also stated he would not follow a provincial law that says students who wish to set up a gay-straight alliance in their schools must be allowed to do so.

The alliances, better known as GSAs, are student-organized peer support groups that are meant to help reduce marginalization and ostracism of LGBTQ youth.

Coldwell has said publicly in recent weeks that as a pastor he cannot contravene Christian teachings by allowing GSAs in his schools.

On Sept. 2, Eggen sent a letter to Coldwell demanding written assurance within two weeks that his schools would comply with the GSA law in the Alberta School Act.

Eggen has promised to "aggressively pursue" boards that fail to comply.

Last month, in an open letter to students, Eggen promised: "You have the right to create a gay-straight alliance or a queer-straight alliance and you have the right to name your clubs this way.

"I'm with you 100 per cent."

Coldwell has said Eggen is over-reaching his authority and is violating charter guarantees on freedom of religion.