Is Premier Ford “Doing the Best He Can” Amidst Challenging Circumstances?

January 19, 2021

Fix Our Schools has been hearing on social media some version of the following question over the past few weeks:

“What do you expect Premier Ford to do? I think he’s doing the best he can in this difficult situation.”

So we thought now was as good a time as any to give a full and complete response to that question …

Please keep in mind that Fix Our Schools’ focus is on ensuring schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working, so what we expect of the Ford government focuses only on that aspect of education, leaving far more calls to action unwritten here. 

Our Pre-Pandemic Expectations of Premier Ford:

To answer the question fully, it seemed necessary to go back to the beginning. Since the Ford government took power in June 2018, Fix Our Schools has taken advantage of the annual budget consultation process to submit our expectations on what the Ford government should do to ensure Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. Some expectations that we have consistently outlined in these submissions include:

  • Developing a standard of good repair for Ontario’s schools
  • Providing adequate, stable funding to eliminate the $16.3-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools
  • Resuming transparency into the disrepair in Ontario’s schools

We made these recommendations in January 2019 and submitted these recommendations in January 2020, and in each of these years also made presentations to the Committee of Economic Affairs and Finance as part of the budget consultation process.

Since 2018, our unwritten expectation of Premier Ford was that he would cultivate a government culture that authentically engaged with, actively listened to, and humbly learned from key stakeholders, in order to develop the best decisions and policy in the face of complex challenges. Our experience has, in fact, been quite the opposite. In stark contrast to the Liberal government who held power before Ford took over, and also in stark contrast to the PC Education Critic and Leader at Queen’s Park at that time, the Ford government has chosen not to actively engage with, listen to, or learn from stakeholders in any meaningful way. Prior to Ford becoming Premier, Fix Our Schools had true working relationships with the NDP Education Critic and Leader, the PC Education Critic and Leader, the Minister of Education, their political staff and the Ontario public servants in that Ministry, and, most notably, as a parent-led, non-partisan, Ontario-wide campaign, we had direct contact and many productive meetings with senior-level policy advisors within the Premiers’ Office. Those working relationships lead to some excellent progress, including significant increases in provincial funding for school repairs increase from $150-M/year to $1.4-B/year and transparency into the disrepair data in schools. Our experience with the Ford administration is that the culture established there is not one of learning or growth, so they seem destined to fall short when leading amidst the extreme complexity and pressure of a global pandemic.

As our input to the 2021/22 provincial budget, Fix Our Schools sent this submission to the Ministry of Education, and continues to call for stable, adequate, equitable funding for schools; a standard of good repair for all Ontario schools, including First Nations schools (which are funded with federal money) and portables. In this funding submission, we also included funding recommendations for the current pandemic environment, and looked ahead to 2025, when all public buildings are meant to be fully accessible for people with disabilities, and made recommendations to this government to provide funding to school boards to address accessibility within their buildings.

Our Expectations of Premier Ford Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic:

On June 11, 2020, Fix Our Schools sent these expectations to the Ministry of Education, in response to its request for public input to Ontario’s plan to reopen schools. Days later, we learned that an advisory group led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) had been working closely with the Ministry of Education.  SickKids issued its initial recommendations for safe school reopenings in the document, COVID-19: Recommendations for School Reopening (pdf), highlighting the need for:

  • the ability for children to maintain 2M distance from one another in classrooms
  • proper ventilation in classrooms
  • proper hand-washing facilities for all students

Given Fix Our Schools initial recommendations, and SickKids initial and subsequent recommendations, Fix Our Schools would have expected Premier Ford to have done the following, all of which are within his governments’ power: 

  • Released new emergency repairs funding to school boards so that they could have taken advantage of the fact that school buildings were empty for weeks and months at a time, and could have conducted outstanding repairs in these buildings more safely and more efficiently. 
  • Funded a return to school plan that would have allowed for sufficient space for students to maintain the recommended 2 m distance from others, like many other countries
  • Responded quickly to the June 17 Sick Kids report calling for proper ventilation in all classrooms, by immediately releasing funding to school boards to have been able to address ventilation issues, rather than waiting to release only $50-M in late August – weeks before schools were opening.
  • Provided funding required to ensure all Ontario students could have easy access to proper hand-washing in schools.
  • Advocated for Ontario’s First Nations schools, even though these are federally funded
  • Provided funding to replenish the technology that, understandably, was taken from schools back in the Spring to ensure all students had resources to participate in at-home learning, accommodate on-line learning. As it stands now, most schools have a dearth of technology available for in-school learning.
  • Developed a provincial outdoor education plan, acknowledging that being outdoors offers the most protection against COVID-19 transmission.
  • Consulted with educators and other education stakeholders to understand how government policies would actually unfold in real classrooms, in real schools, rather than relying on teachers, principals and education workers to work miracles.
  • Hired additional caretakers.

We, at Fix Our Schools, hope that this provides some insight into all that could have been done by Premier Ford since taking office in June 2018 to lead us to a much better place than we find ourselves in today. This January 7, 2021 Ottawa Citizen article provides some additional recommendations on ways Premier Ford and his government could make schools safer.