Transparency: A Building Block of Effectiveness and Efficiency

February 9, 2021

Transparency is generally accepted as an important aspect of any democratic government:

Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government. Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset.        – Barack Obama, Former US President

In Ontario, the Ford government has been anything but transparent since taking office. For example, Fix Our Schools has made regular calls for the Ford government to follow the lead of the previous government in updating and sharing disrepair data for Ontario’s schools each year. The Ford government has consistently ignored our calls for transparency into this information, which is collected using taxpayer dollars, and is necessary for citizens to assess success in improving the state of local schools, and to advocate locally for urgent repair items. Instead, we continue to rely on the detailed school disrepair data that was last published by the previous Liberal government in Fall 2017 to understand whether Ontario’s publicly funded schools are healthy, safe, and well-maintained buildings. Thanks to the persistence of NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles, we’ve also been able to glean that overall school disrepair has increased from $15.9-billion in Fall 2017 to $16.3-billion in Fall 2019. This is not transparency. This level of secrecy will not lead to efficient, effective solutions to fix Ontario’s schools. 

This culture of opacity has continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’ve seen the Ford government routinely ignore calls for transparency. In November, even some of Ford’s key advisors were calling for more transparency about the details and rationale of its pandemic response. Dr. Charles Gardner, a member of Ford’s public health measures table, urged Premier Ford to provide more information to the public, stating, “I believe when people have good information they understand things better, and they’re more likely to abide by restrictions.” However, these calls for increased transparency again went unheeded.

More recently, and specific to the education sector, students, teachers, parents, school boards, and the general public have sought transparency on how this government is making decisions about when to close schools due to COVID-19 and when to allow schools to open amidst the ongoing pandemic. On Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, David Williams, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, was quoted in a Globe & Mail article entitled, “Ontario officials vague on school reopening criteria” as saying that there was “not an exact number, per se” when asked about the metrics being considered in reopening schools. “We would like them all down, ideally quite low,” he added. This Toronto Star opinion piece responded clearly to this lack of transparency or use of any clear metrics –  “the government hasn’t even bothered to provide the specific metrics it’s using to determine when schools can reopen.” The title of the article published by School Magazine on February 2 says it all: “Return to school: A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma cloaked in uncertainty” This is not transparency. 

Also amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen a tremendous lack of detail and transparency, and perhaps even a lack of truth, into the details of what is being funded to keep students, teachers, and education workers safe in schools. It is one thing for a government to cite what needs to be done but if they are not providing the required money to actually fund what needs to be done, then these are empty action plans that will not result in anything to benefit students, teachers, and education workers.

For example, during the week of Feb. 1, Minister Lecce proudly announced that “Ontario would provide additional funding to keep schools safe“, without clarifying that the $381-million being announced had already been announced with fanfare back in August. This $381-million was simply the second allotment of federal funding provided to Ontario schools. In the same week, Minister Lecce also proudly announced that 1400 custodians had been hired. However, the union representing these workers cannot confirm or substantiate this claim and has actually submitted a Freedom of Information request to the government to seek clarity. This is not transparency. 

Minister Lecce also claimed that more teachers have been hired and yet, the general public is again left relying upon Freedom of Information requests to substantiate these claims.

This is not transparency.