With no fanfare or public announcement the newly minted Ministry of Education sent out memos to school boards across the province letting them know that, as a result of the cancellation of the Provincial Cap and Trade program, the 2018 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funding (GGRF) has been cancelled effective July 3, 2018. This funding represents $100-million out of the $1.4-billion total amount provided to school boards. It is distributed via School Renewal Allocation and School Condition Improvement funding.
Industry standards suggest that $1.4-billion/year for school repairs is the absolute minimum required for routine maintenance and repairs in Ontario’s schools and the Auditor-General agrees. A reduction of $100-million per year brings this down to $1.3-billion per year.
The Ministry did outline that any GGRF work that was under contract prior to this date will be honoured, but that future work will have to be funded out of existing funding sources (such as renewal (SRA) or Improvement (SCI) funding). Each school board will be at a different stage of spending their portion of the $100-million so the exact impact for this budget year has yet to be determined.
Industry standards suggest that $1.4-billion/year for school repairs is the absolute minimum required for routine maintenance and repairs in Ontario’s schools and the Auditor-General agrees. A reduction of $100-million per year brings this down to $1.3-billion per year.
Unless Doug Ford’s government allocates an additional $100-million in SRA or SCI funding in the next budget cycle, this new government will have effectively cut annual provincial funding for school repairs by over 7% in the blink of an eye.
Schools are critical infrastructure in this province and Ontario’s 2-million students deserve safe, healthy, well-maintained schools in which to learn each day. We must hold our new provincial government accountable to providing exactly that.