With a federal election imminent, we must ensure that our elected politicians at every level of government prioritize spending to align with our values. In a nutshell, we must ask for what we want.
As a Canadian, you very likely value high quality public education – and its associated societal and economic benefits. Certainly, if politicians asked, you would tell them that you want to see public school buildings in a state of good repair for the 5-million Canadian children who spend their days in these buildings.
Unfortunately, the sad reality is that publicly funded school buildings across this country are crumbling. While there are examples of state-of-the-art public schools, an unacceptable number of public schools across Canada need massive repairs. In Ontario schools alone, there are $15.9-billion of disrepair as of Fall 2017 (the last time disrepair data was updated and released publicly by our provincial government). In Vancouver, public schools struggle with $740-million of disrepair plus need seismic upgrades to make them safe in case of earthquakes;
So, as this federal election builds momentum and you have an opportunity to speak with candidates, let them know you consider publicly funded school buildings to be a critical element of our societal infrastructure – certainly on par with arenas, community centres and parks but also on par with transit, roads and healthcare. Let federal candidates know that you want infrastructure money to be spent on repairing and rebuilding Canada’s public school buildings. We know that in Canada, public education is a provincial responsibility. However, the school buildings in which education takes place represent critical public infrastructure that we believe should be able to benefit from funding from all levels of government. Now is the right time to ask.
If you don’t ask – you don’t get!