Dear Minister Fullerton,

Did you know there is $77.5-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Kanata-Carleton? We know that you did not sign the Fix Our Schools Pledge during the election, but we also recognize that your government has committed to governing for the People. We trust that safe, healthy, well-maintained school buildings will be a part of this commitment?

We wanted to share the following details of disrepair each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $15.9-billion repair backlog that plagues Ontario’s schools.

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Kanata-Carleton:

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure and take the steps necessary to ensure that the $15.9-billion of disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

Dear MPP Piccini,

Did you know there is $76.3-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Northumberland-Peterborough South? We know that you did not sign the Fix Our Schools Pledge during the election, but we also recognize that your government has committed to governing for the People. We trust that safe, healthy, well-maintained school buildings wil be a part of this commitment?

We wanted to share the following details of disrepair each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $15.9-billion repair backlog that plagues Ontario’s schools.

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Northumberland-Peterborough South:

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure and take the steps necessary to ensure that the $15.9-billion of disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

Dear Education Minister Thompson,

Did you know there is $113.8-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Huron-Bruce? We commend you for signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge during the election, and making the personal commitment to ensure all Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working.

We wanted to share the following details of disrepair each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $15.9-billion repair backlog that plagues Ontario’s schools.

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Huron-Bruce Riding:

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure and take the steps necessary to ensure that the $15.9-billion of disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools, especially given that you signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge during the election.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

Please take a minute today to send an email to your newly elected MPP expressing your outrage at the $100-million cut to provincial funding for school repairs.

With no fanfare or public announcement, the 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) had been cancelled effective July 3, 2018. The GGRF funding represented $100-million out of the $1.4-billion total provincial funding promised to school boards for school repairs this year.

Industry standards suggest that $1.4-billion/year for school repairs is the absolute minimum amount required for school boards to be able to conduct the routine repairs and maintenance on Ontario’s schools. A reduction of $100-million brings this down to $1.3-billion/year – a 7% cut to provincial funding for school repairs in the blink of an eye. Appalling, really. Especially when we know that $1.4-billion/year was not even sufficient to start to decrease the $15.9-billion repair backlog that has been allowed to accumulate over the past 20 years in Ontario’s schools – when provincial funding for school repairs in many years was only a mere fraction of what it ought to have been. In fact, when Fix Our Schools started 4 years ago, provincial funding for school repairs was only $150-million/year – ONE-TENTH of what industry standards suggest was needed. No wonder so much disrepair has accrued in Ontario’s schools!

The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario has launched this excellent letter-writing campaign as part of its “Building Better Schools Initiative” and we encourage you to participate.

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.

Dear Premier Ford,

Did you know there is $178.4-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Etobicoke North? We wanted to share the following details of disrepair in each school in your riding in the hope that this detailed information would underscore the importance of developing standards of good repair for Ontario schools and also the importance of providing the adequate, stable provincial funding to school boards required for them to meet those new standards and eliminate the $15.9-billion repair backlog that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Etobicoke North Riding:

School conditions matter. They impact student learning, attendance, and health.

We ask that you and your government please prioritize schools as critical infrastructure and take the steps necessary to ensure that the disrepair in all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools is eliminated and that schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. We look forward to hearing back from you with details on your plan to Fix Ontario’s Schools.

PLEASE NOTE: Fix Our Schools is relying on the most recent disrepair data provided by the Ministry of Education in Fall 2017 and has mapped postal codes provided by the Ministry for each school to riding postal code information from a third party. Therefore, it is possible that there may be small errors in the data provided here and we would be grateful if community members would contact us with any errors. 

Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative party won a resounding majority in Thursday’s election. They promised to restore ‘respect for the taxpayer’. Too bad for the 2-million children in this province who attend publicly funded schools that no respect was promised to them.

In fact, no mention was made in the PC education platform at all about the state of Ontario’s schools and the $15.9-billion of disrepair in these buildings. And yet, 58 of the newly elected MPPs did make a personal commitment to ensuring that a standard of good repair is developed for Ontario’s schools, that funding will be provided to ensure that these new standards can be met and that the $15.9-billion of disrepair that currently plagues Ontario’s schools will be eliminated. Interested in seeing if your MPP-elect made this personal commitment by signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge? CLICK HERE

Notably, 30% of elected PC MPPs signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge, 80% of elected NDP MPPs and 43% of elected Liberal MPPs. Overall, 47% of the MPPs who will be working for Ontarians at Queen’s Park in the coming four years did commit to ensuring Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. So here’s hoping that despite a focus on taxpayers during the election, that when the real work begins – the new PC government will also respect Ontario’s children and Fix Ontario’s Schools.

Did your local MPP candidates sign the Pledge? CLICK HERE  to find out! All the candidates that are “lit up” in their party’s colour signed the pledge!

As you head to vote tomorrow, please think about the 2-million children in Ontario who spend their days in schools. At the moment, $15.9-billion of disrepair exists in these buildings because of gross and chronic underfunding by successive provincial governments over the past 20 years. There are no measurable standards in place to even specify what constitutes “acceptable school conditions”. We believe this situation needs to change – and so do the candidates who signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge.

As of this morning, 221 candidates from across Ontario had pledged to Fix Our Schools: 85 NDP Candidates, 49 Liberal Candidates, 34 PC Candidates, 40 Green Candidates and 13 Other Candidates have all pledged to Fix Our Schools. This is what we view as the final list of supporters for the Fix Our Schools Pledge.