Platforms and Budgets: Why Ontario’s Schools Matter

May 3, 2022

Ontario’s Schools Matter

Over the years, Fix Our Schools has received many photos of the visible disrepair in Ontario’s schools. We recently received this photo from a school in Eastern Ontario, where a leaking roof is dripping through the light fixtures into permanently placed buckets in the hallway.  You can see that ceiling tiles have been replaced with grates so the water can flow freely and prevent further damage to any ceiling tiles. Clearly not an ideal scenario for the students and adults who spend their days in this building. Also, clearly not a fiscally responsible way to manage the assets we call schools. Fixing capital assets reactively is always more expensive than taking care of assets proactively. However, to proactively maintain Ontario’s schools would require a provincial government that prioritizes these capital assets and, therefore, provides adequate, stable funding to properly invest in these assets.

Despite the fact that the Ford government touts its annual funding of $1.4-B/year for school repairs and renewal, the sad fact is that the repair backlog in Ontario’s schools has increased year over year with this level of funding, and has reached an alarming $16.8-B total. This, of course, means that photos such as the one here are not a rarity. Unfortunately, it also means that many other types of school disrepair lurk beneath the surface because often disrepair is invisible.

Consider Thistletown Collegiate Institute in Doug Ford’s riding with a total of $20.6-M of outstanding repairs that include such items as: “foundation repairs”, “HVAC pumps renewal”, “roof coverings renewal”, and “air distribution, heating and cooling – duct systems renewal”. These repairs are all noted as urgent or high priority items, but are not possible to photograph because they are repairs that are not readily visible.

A Thoughtful, Comprehensive Platform

Over the past four years with Doug Ford as Premier, we have seen a provincial government that has failed time and again to prioritize public schools and education. This was not surprising to us, given that the Ford government’s platform back in 2018 was scant, at best, and highlighted policy priorities such as “Buck-A-Beer” rather than anything of real value to Ontario, such as addressing the massive repair backlog in our public schools or developing standards of good repair for Ontario’s schools.

Fix Our Schools was pleased to see the Ontario NDP party release a thoughtful and comprehensive platform over a month prior to the provincial election, leaving voters plenty of time for reading and consideration. The NDP platform includes many specific commitments to ensuring Ontario’s publicly funded schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained, and provide environments conducive to learning and working including:

  • Clearing the school repair backlog within 10 years.
  • Hiring more custodians and maintenance staff
  • Establishing a province-wide standard for cleaning and school repairs
  • Upgrading public school buildings to make them carbon neutral and climate resilient, and bringing those same principles to new school buildings, to ensure they meet international energy efficiency standards.
  • Ensuring that all schools have up-to-date ventilation systems to prevent the spread of infection during potential future waves of COVID-19.
  • Fixing the rules around education development charges so they can fund the new schools families need.

We would expect any party who is serious about governing Ontario for the coming four years to have an equally thoughtful and comprehensive plan for publicly funded schools in this province. 

Ford’s Budget Fails to Prioritize Schools … Yet Again 

If this week’s provincial budget is any indication of how Doug Ford would treat public schools in this province if elected to serve another four years, then we can expect more of the same – an abject failure to prioritize schools and education. Ford’s recent budget allocated a paltry $14-B over 10 years for capital investments in schools, which translates into only $1.4-B/year for school repair, renewal and for building new schools and additions. Given that the annual allocation for school repair and renewal has been $1.4-B/year since 2016, this proposed commitment of only $14-B over 10 years means that either:

  • We can expect the same inadequate $1.4-B/year annual funding for school repairs and renewal that have lead to year over year increases and a total school repair backlog of $16.8-B (and growing), OR
  • We will see a decrease in this $1.4-B/year school repair and renewal funding in order to allocate some funding for new school builds.

Either scenario is bad for Ontario’s schools and bad for Ontario’s students, teachers, and education workers who deserve safe, healthy, well-maintained learning and working environments. After the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of school conditions (especially aspects such as proper ventilation), it is unfathomable that the Ford budget would basically ignore schools as critical infrastructure.

This week’s budget also included a plan to “expedite school construction with modular builds”, which leaves us wondering how current best practices in sustainable design and decarbonization strategies will factor in to any new school builds in the coming years? Nothing about the phrase “expedite school construction with modular builds” seems to conjure up best practices in environmental and sustainable design. So this is a big question in our minds.

Also of note is that on top of the massive repair backlog in Ontario’s schools (which doesn’t even include portables or schoolyards, and also does not include aspects of school infrastructure such as air quality, temperatures, asbestos, and water quality), much retrofitting is needed for existing schools to become more environmentally sustainable. 

As you engage with your local candidates in the coming weeks, please be sure to keep in mind the 2-million children in this province who spend their days in schools – and ask every candidate about the lack of any standard of good repair for these buildings, and how they plan to address the flawed funding approach that has lead to $16.8-B of disrepair in Ontario’s schools. To make things easy for you, we’ve prepared this one-page sheet you can easily print and keep handy during the election! You may also like to visit the FAQ section of our website for some quick background information on the issue of school conditions in Ontario.