The following excerpt from the summary of the 2015 Auditor-General’s report confirms that Ontario’s provincial government has grossly underfunded public school infrastructure in our province for many years:
“An independent assessment calculated that the Ministry of Education needs $1.4 billion a year to maintain schools in a state of good repair. However, actual annual funding in the last five years has ranged from $150 million to $500 million.”
The $1.4 billion per year that is needed is for maintenance intended to KEEP buildings in good repair; and does not include the funding required to address the $15-billion of outstanding repairs that have been allowed to accumulate under provincial watch and funding for the past two decades.
If only some of the $37-billion that Ontarians have overpaid for electricity since 2006 has gone to repairing and rebuilding Ontario’s public schools, 2-million children would be attending schools that are in much better shape!