Tag Archives: Disrepair

Schools in Mississauga Plagued by $755-M of Disrepair

May 28, 2022

Mississauga schools still waiting for provincial funding for $755,000,000 in outstanding repairs — impacting HVAC systems, roofs, foundations & drinking water— despite many Ontario MPP’s signing a pledge to address this issue in the last election.

The province’s own data is compelling — Port Credit Secondary School needs $19-M in repairs, Glenforest Secondary clocks in at $15.1-M, and Huntington Ridge Public School $3.7-M.

Krista Wylie, co-founder of Fix Our Schools, a non-partisan school advocacy group, warns of the impacts on the health of Ontario students during a critical period when well maintained schools are essential. Wylie’s example is compelling: “Ontario schools with large repair backlogs, like Port Credit Secondary, have so many outstanding repairs that the cost of those repairs would go a long way to fund a brand new school with modern ventilation. Children spend 6+ hours a day in these schools.”

Fix Our Schools, an Ontario-wide campaign, approached every candidate running in the 2018 provincial election with a pledge request. They asked candidates to “make a commitment to ensure that our schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working.” This included creating a State of Good Repair Standard by 2022 that would put standards, measurements & metrics in place for school buildings and fund them.

Hundreds of candidates signed the pledge and a full 58 of those signatories became Members of Provincial Parliament. Twenty-three Progressive Conservative MPP’s were signatories. In Mississauga, MPP Deepak Anand, MPP Rudy Cuzzetto, and MPP Natalia Kusendova had committed to improve school conditions by bringing them up to an accepted standard.

Despite the power of a PC majority government, no action has been taken on the development of this standard to date.

Fix Our Schools has routinely called on the province to fund schools wisely. “Taxpayer dollars are wasted because the government has refused to fund proactive repairs. Every building manager knows that reactive repairs cost more than regular maintenance.”

Why is a Standard of Good Repair so vital?

  • Increased academic performance and decreased absenteeism
  • Increased ventilation because Covid is airborne
  • Removing health issues related to aging buildings will improve the health of students
  • Schools are valuable assets owned by taxpayers that need to be maintained to keep their value
  • The lack of crucial technology and stable wi-fi is related to the disrepair backlog
  • School building conditions impact Ontario’s economy

What does a typical school repair list look like?

Lists of urgent repairs typically include all the basics: ventilation (HVAC), heat (hot water boilers), power (electricity transformers), drinking water, structural issues, leaking roofs, and emergency exits. The vast majority of repairs are large, vital systems, but small items can still be dangerous

Important to note is that the $755-M of disrepair logged in Scarborough schools does NOT include repairing portables, filtering or monitoring classroom air, removing lead in drinking water (63% of schools), remediating asbestos (70% of schools), solving poor classroom temperatures (no A/C in schools and poorly heated classrooms), or accessibility retrofits (AODA deadline is 2025). The province does not track these repair, remediation or renovation needs.

Disrepair in Etobicoke Schools Hits $611.8-M

May 26, 2022

Government data show $611.8 Million of Disrepair Etobicoke Schools

Etobicoke schools are still waiting for provincial funding for over half a billion in outstanding repairs — impacting HVAC systems, roofs, foundations & drinking water— despite many Ontario MPP’s signing a pledge to address this issue in the last election.

The province’s own data is compelling — Wedgewood Junior Public School needs $4.7-M in repairs, Park Lawn Junior Middle School clocks in at $6.6-M, and Braeburn Junior School $4-M.

Krista Wylie, co-founder of Fix Our Schools, a non-partisan school advocacy group, warns of the impact on the health of Ontario students during a critical period when well-maintained schools are essential. Wylie’s example is compelling: “Braeburn Junior School has so many outstanding repairs that their cost would fund 61% of a brand new school. They include 15 urgent repairs such as HVAC ventilation, heat, wiring & washrooms. Children spend 6+ hours a day in these schools.”

Fix Our Schools, an Ontario-wide campaign, approached every candidate running in the 2018 provincial election with a pledge request. They asked candidates to “make a commitment to ensure that our schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working.” This included creating a State of Good Repair Standard by 2022 that would put standards, measurements & metrics in place for school buildings and fund them.

Hundreds of candidates signed the pledge and a full 58 of those signatories became Members of Provincial Parliament. Twenty-three Progressive Conservative MPP’s were signatories. In Etobicoke, both MPP Christine Hogarth and MPP Kinga Surma had committed to improve school conditions by bringing them up to an accepted standard by 2022.

Despite the power of a PC majority government, no action has been taken on the development of this standard to date. Schools in Premier Ford’s riding need a whopping $178.4-Million in repairs.

Fix Our Schools has routinely called on the province to fund schools wisely. “Taxpayer dollars are wasted because the government has refused to fund proactive repairs. Every building manager knows that reactive repairs cost more than regular maintenance.”

Why is a Standard of Good Repair so vital?

  • Increased academic performance and decreased absenteeism
  • Increased ventilation because Covid is airborne
  • Removing health issues related to aging buildings will improve the health of students
  • Schools are valuable assets owned by taxpayers that need to be maintained to keep their value
  • The lack of crucial technology and stable wi-fi is related to the disrepair backlog
  • School building conditions impact Ontario’s economy

What does a typical school repair list look like?

Lists of urgent repairs typically include all the basics: ventilation (HVAC), heat (hot water boilers), power (electricity transformers), drinking water, structural issues, leaking roofs, and emergency exits. The vast majority of repairs are large, vital systems, but small items can still be dangerous

Wedgewood Junior Public School needs 30 high or urgent repairs. However, there is a lot missing from this list. These long repair lists do NOT include repairing portables, filtering or monitoring classroom air, removing lead in drinking water (63% of schools), remediating asbestos (70% of schools), solving poor classroom temperatures (no A/C in schools and poorly heated classrooms), or accessibility retrofits (AODA deadline is 2025). The province does not track these repair, remediation or renovation needs.

Shocking Levels of Disrepair in Scarborough Schools: Total of $1.1-B

May 25, 2022

Government data show $1.1-Billion of school disrepair in all 6 Scarborough ridings

Scarborough schools still waiting for provincial funding for $1.1 billion in outstanding repairs — impacting HVAC systems, roofs, foundations & drinking water— despite many Ontario MPP’s signing a pledge to address this issue in the last election.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The province’s own data is compelling — West Rouge Public School needs $4.4-M in repairs, Wexford Collegiate clocks in at $16.6-M, and North Agincourt Junior Public School $3.1-M.

Krista Wylie, a co-founder of Fix Our Schools, a non-partisan school advocacy group, warns of the impacts on the health of Ontario students during a critical period when well-maintained schools are essential. Wylie’s example is compelling: “West Rouge Junior Public School has so many outstanding repairs that their cost would fund 55% of a brand new school. They include 11 urgent repairs such as HVAC ventilation, heat, wiring & water. Children spend 6+ hours a day in these schools.”

Fix Our Schools, an Ontario-wide campaign, approached every candidate running in the 2018 provincial election with a pledge request. They asked candidates to “make a commitment to ensure that our schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working.” This included creating a State of Good Repair Standard by 2022 that would put standards, measurements & metrics in place for school buildings and fund them.

Hundreds of candidates signed the pledge and a full 58 of those signatories became Members of Provincial Parliament. Twenty-three Progressive Conservative MPP’s were signatories. In Scarborough, MPP Christana Mitas had committed to improve school conditions by bringing them up to an accepted standard.

Despite the power of a PC majority government, no action has been taken on the development of this standard to date.

Fix Our Schools has routinely called on the province to fund schools wisely. “Taxpayer dollars are wasted because the government has refused to fund proactive repairs. Every building manager knows that reactive repairs cost more than regular maintenance.”

Why is a Standard of Good Repair so vital?

  • Increased academic performance and decreased absenteeism
  • Increased ventilation because Covid is airborne
  • Removing health issues related to aging buildings will improve the health of students
  • Schools are valuable assets owned by taxpayers that need to be maintained to keep their value
  • The lack of crucial technology and stable wi-fi is related to the disrepair backlog
  • School building conditions impact Ontario’s economy

What does a typical school repair list look like?

Lists of urgent repairs typically include all the basics: ventilation (HVAC), heat (hot water boilers), power (electricity transformers), drinking water, structural issues, leaking roofs, and emergency exits. The vast majority of repairs are large, vital systems, but small items can still be dangerous

West Rouge Junior Public School needs 11 urgent repairs. However, there is a lot missing from this list. These long repair lists do NOT include repairing portables, filtering or monitoring classroom air, removing lead in drinking water (63% of schools), remediating asbestos (70% of schools), solving poor classroom temperatures (no A/C in schools and poorly heated classrooms), or accessibility retrofits (AODA deadline is 2025). The province does not track these repair, remediation or renovation needs.

School is in Session! Yet Queen’s Park is Not…

September 9, 2021

Premier Ford Prorogues Legislature Until October 4

In the midst of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the return of almost 2-million Ontario children to schools that have been closed since April is pivotal for students, parents, teachers and education workers across the province. However, Premier Ford felt this was the right time to prorogue provincial legislature until October 4, when our MPPs were meant to be back at work on September 13.

According to the September 3 article in the Toronto Sun entitled, Ontario government prorogues legislature until after the federal election”, NDP and Green Leaders Andrea Horwath and Mike Schreiner both expressed that Ford’s move was irresponsible and an abdication of responsibility.

“It’s bad enough that Doug Ford has gone into hiding for over a month, now he is choosing to hide his entire government,” said Horwath.

Schreiner added, “When the times are tough and Ontarians need support, Doug Ford and his government run for the shadows.”

Mitigating COVID-19 Risks in Schools

Sabina Vohra-Miller, MSc. in Clinical Pharmacology, runs a non-partisan blog called Unambiguous Science, with the goal of “helping people navigate the current anti-science vortex by breaking data down into posts that are easy to understand”.  She released a helpful blog this past week entitled, “Safe Schools – Advocacy and Considerations” to assist parents in advocating for mitigation strategies and in navigating the complexity of return-to-school amidst the fourth wave of the COVID-19-pandemic. Vohra-Miller included the following two graphics to clarify how schools can be mitigating COVID-related risks, and to outline considerations for families as children head back to schools.

Ventilation has been a key concern for us at Fix Our Schools, and we will continue to cover this important topic in the coming weeks and months. At the moment, we believe that our provincial government must provide the required funding and resources to ensure school boards gather measurements on ventilation and indoor air quality in all classrooms to compare against a provincial standard. Without knowing the outcome of ventilation improvement efforts and having a standard that all Ontario schools must meet, we simply have no way of knowing whether the ventilation and indoor air quality in a given classroom is sufficient to reduce the spread of COVID.

Ontario’s University of Guelph has been incredibly transparent about how they are preparing for your safe return, stating that, “Physical Resources has assessed ventilation in all classrooms scheduled for use this fall. Before classes begin in September, all classrooms that will be in use will have ventilation measures in place that provide for the equivalent of six outside air changes per hour (ACH). Air movement and, in some cases, air purifiers will allow these spaces to reach this ventilation target – a measure equal to the standard in place for medical examination rooms.” As of August 12, 2021, anyone can view detailed ventilation measures in all University of Guelph classrooms to track progress towards meeting the 6 ACH standard.

The example of the University of Guelph, which has many other funding options at its disposal beyond the provincial government, provides a stark contrast to Ontario’s publicly funded schools, which rely exclusively upon provincial funding. The University of Guelph has set a standard of 6 air changes per hour (ACH), the same standard in place for medical examination rooms, and then has been taking the measurements in classrooms to ensure these standards are met.  When will our provincial government provide the standards, funding and resources for public schools in this province to ensure that indoor air quality and ventilation is at an appropriate level in all Ontario’s classrooms?  

A Long History of Provincial Underfunding for School Infrastructure 

Chronic and gross underfunding from Ontario’s provincial government for school infrastructure has led to a $16.8-B repair backlog in Ontario’s schools. This massive repair backlog does not even include issues such as classroom temperatures and humidity, accessibility issues with the vast majority of Ontario’s schools, technology gaps, or the state of portables, the conditions of which are never assessed.

When Fix Our Schools began in 2014, provincial funding for school renewal and repair was only $150-M/year for all Ontario school boards – an amount that was ONE-TENTH what industry standards suggest the bare minimum amount of funding ought to have been to keep Ontario’s schools in decent shape. To the credit of the previous provincial government, they did increase this annual amount significantly back in 2016 to $1.4-B/year – the amount industry standards recommended as the bare minimum. However, as Fix Our Schools has repeatedly pointed out – this annual funding level is still insufficient to make up for the 20+ years when funding was grossly inadequate and during which time a $15-B repair backlog accumulated in Ontario’s schools. So, unsurprisingly, despite the ongoing $1.4-B/year of provincial funding for school renewal and repairs, the repair backlog for Ontario’s schools has continued to grow year over year to a gob-smacking $16.8-B.

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly laid bare the importance of school buildings for the health and well-being of students, teachers and education workers. As we head into another school year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, City TV Toronto covered the issue of disrepair in schools on September 7, 2021. They revealed that the schools in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) combined have close to $5-B of disrepair. Fix Our Schools was interviewed for this segment, and emphasized how the current provincial funding, while a huge sum of money, is simply insufficient if we actually want to eliminate the repair backlog in Ontario’s schools and ensure our publicly funded schools are safe, healthy and well-maintained.

CBC Toronto has also started covering this important issue, kicking off a series about the state of TDSB schools on September 9, 2021. John Riete, Angelina King, and Katie Swyers provided a comprehensive and concise look at why school conditions matter and the impact of poor school conditions on learning and health. Fix Our Schools provided an overview of the history that has led to a public education system where Ontario schools face a $16.8-B backlog of disrepair.

Krista Wylie, the co-founder of the organization Fix Our Schools, said the solution has to come from Queen’s Park. Since 2016, the province (under the Wynne and Ford governments) has spent some $1.4 billion per year on school repairs across the province, but that funding is split across some 5,000 schools. That price tag may look big, but Wylie said in her view it’s the “absolute minimum, and noted that even with this often cited “historic level of provincial funding”, the repair backlog in Ontario’s schools has continued to grow every year, proving that provincial funding is simply insufficient.

Fix Our Schools Calls for Transparency + Adequate, Stable Funding

November 17, 2020

Fix Our Schools is calling upon the Ford government to:

  • Resume the transparency into school disrepair in Ontario that was first introduced by the previous Liberal government in 2016, by releasing updated Facilities Condition Index/Disrepair data on Ontario’s schools in a comparable format to the data that was released in November 2017, so that the public can assess whether the annual funding level of $1.4-billion for school repairs is sufficient to fix Ontario’s schools.
  • Provide the adequate, stable funding for school infrastructure that we have been outlining is required since 2017, and have outlined in every subsequent budget submission we have made since that time.
  • Conduct an independent and comprehensive review of the education funding formula, as has also been requested by Ontario’s Auditor-General as per this quote from page 495 of the 2017 report: “(The Education) Funding formula uses out-of-date benchmarks and is due for a comprehensive external review. In 2002, an independent task force reviewed the Ministry’s complex formula for determining school boards’ funding. The task force recommended that the Ministry annually review and update the benchmarks used in the formula and conduct a more comprehensive overall review of the formula every five years. Fifteen years later, the Ministry has not commissioned another independent review of the (education) funding formula.” Given this quote is from a 2017 report, we can now say that it has been a full seventeen years since the Ministry of Education has conducted an independent review of a funding formula that has led to, among other things, a $16.3-billion repair backlog in Ontario’s schools.

Here is a brief history of events that has led Fix Our Schools to these calls for action:

In August 2016, after concerted pressure from the Fix Our Schools network, the Liberal provincial government finally released the disrepair data for Ontario’s publicly funded schools that it had been collecting for years using our taxpayer dollars. This new transparency was a huge win for Ontario students, parents, teachers, and education workers because it enabled a common understanding that all 72 of Ontario’s school boards faced a significant level of school disrepair. In fact, this data release confirmed that an unfathomable $15-billion of disrepair had been allowed to accumulate in Ontario’s 5,000 schools.

The 2015 Ontario Auditor-General report that had been released a few months prior to the school disrepair data revealed that the amount of annual provincial funding required to maintain Ontario’s schools in a state of good repair had always been approximately $1.4-billion/year. “However, actual annual funding on a school year basis over the last five years has been $150 million a year, increasing to $250 million in 2014/15 and $500 million in 2015/16,” thus clarifying that gross and chronic provincial underfunding – in some years as little as one-tenth of what was actually needed – was the root cause of the identified $15-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools as at 2016. In this same report, several other concerns were expressed by the Auditor-General regarding the inadequacy of provincial funding to ensure Ontario’s students learned in safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provided environments conducive to learning:

Portables: As per the Auditor-General, there were “over 100,000 students in temporary accommodations (portables), and about 10% of schools operating at over 120% capacity in the province. Although portables are needed to provide some flexibility to address changes in school capacity, existing funding is not sufficient to rehabilitate the existing portfolio and to replace these structures with more permanent accommodation, in some cases.“

New School Buildings: As per the Auditor-General, “About $2.6 billion worth of projects are submitted to the Ministry of Education by school boards for funding consideration every year. However, over the last five years, the Ministry has approved only about a third of the projects every year, since its annual funding envelope under the program has averaged only about $500 million on a school year basis.”

In June 2016, Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government increased provincial funding for school repairs to the $1.4-billion/year that both industry standards and the Ontario Auditor-General suggested always ought to have been going to school repairs. While Fix Our Schools was thrilled that annual funding for school repairs had been increased by $1.1-billion per year, we cautioned that without additional funding to account for the almost two decades when provincial funding was a mere fraction of what was needed, and during which time $15-billion of disrepair had accrued, we would continue to see overall disrepair in Ontario schools increase – not decrease.

When the Wynne Liberals seemed slow on providing an annual update on the disrepair data for schools, Fix Our Schools continued to pressure the Province for ongoing transparency into the state of Ontario’s publicly funded schools. As we pointed out in this September 2017 blog entitled, Have we even stopped the bleeding on the $15-B repair backlog in Ontario’s schools?, citizens would have no idea whether the new $1.4-B/year level of funding was serving to decrease the repair backlog unless the Province released annual disrepair data. We also pointed out that this type of accountability seemed entirely reasonable.

Finally, after this pressure, the Liberals did release updated data on school disrepair in November 2017. Unsurprisingly, we saw an increase of almost a billion dollars of disrepair, with a total of $15.9-billion of disrepair logged by the third-party engineer firm hired by the Province to conduct assessments of Ontario’s schools.

Since that time, Fix Our Schools has consistently provided funding approaches that would fix Ontario’s schools. Our recommendations have been consistently ignored and, again unsurprisingly, disrepair in Ontario’s schools has continued to increase. The latest total disrepair data we have gleaned from the Ford government was actually through NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles after her November 2019 Estimates Committee revealed that total school disrepair had increased from $15.9-billion in November 2017 to $16.3-billion in November 2019.

We have no lens into the details of the most current school disrepair data because, shockingly, the Ford government has refused any level of transparency into this data which is collected using taxpayer money and ought to be made public annually.

Which leads us back to the beginning with the three calls to action above.

 

MPP Calandra: $33.6-Million of Disrepair in Markham-Stouffville Schools

October 22, 2020

Dear MPP Calandra

Did you know there is $33.6-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Markham-Stouffville? 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 $16.3-billion repair backlog (as of November 2019) that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Markham-Stouffville Riding:

St. Brigid CES  $                                                   67,897
St. Brother Andre CHS  $                                              5,250,585
St. Edward CES  $                                              2,063,934
St. Julia Billiart CES  $                                                   21,000
St. Kateri Tekakwitha CES  $                                                 854,932
St. Mark CES  $                                              2,186,540
St. Patrick (Markham) CES  $                                              2,949,215
Cornell Village PS  $                                                 186,224
David Suzuki PS  $                                                   20,280
E T Crowle PS  $                                              1,089,700
Franklin Street PS  $                                              1,538,745
Glad Park PS  $                                                 872,547
Greensborough PS  $                                                 250,400
Harry Bowes PS  $                                                   20,280
James Robinson PS  $                                              2,803,665
Legacy PS  $                                                 750,000
Little Rouge PS  $                                                   80,100
Markham DHS  $                                                 259,100
Markville SS  $                                              2,400,657
Mount Joy PS  $                                                 196,000
Oscar Peterson PS  $                                                   20,280
Ramer Wood PS  $                                              1,122,600
Reesor Park PS  $                                              2,428,834
Roy H Crosby PS  $                                              2,057,050
Sam Chapman PS  $                                                   54,100
Summitview PS  $                                              2,204,631
William Armstrong PS  $                                              1,696,929

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. 

MPP Kanapathi: $63.5-Million of Disrepair in Markham-Thornhill Schools

October 13, 2020

Dear MPP Kanapathi

Did you know there is $63.5-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Markham-Thornhill? 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 $16.3-billion repair backlog (as of November 2019) that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Markham-Thornhill Riding:

Sir Richard W. Scott CES  $                                                   71,994
St. Benedict CES  $                                              2,378,792
St. Francis Xavier CES  $                                              4,616,267
St. Robert CHS  $                                              8,955,988
St. Vincent de Paul CES  $                                              2,533,654
Aldergrove PS  $                                                 837,200
Armadale PS  $                                                 679,631
Bayview Fairways PS  $                                              1,563,588
Bayview Glen PS  $                                              2,228,704
Bill Crothers SS  $                                                 578,400
Boxwood PS  $                                                 449,526
Cedarwood PS  $                                                 173,000
Coppard Glen PS  $                                              1,879,898
Ellen Fairclough PS  $                                                 199,600
German Mills PS  $                                              2,029,066
Highgate PS  $                                              2,585,540
Johnsview Village PS  $                                                 684,956
Markham Gateway PS  $                                                 128,600
Middlefield CI  $                                              4,993,360
Milliken Mills PS  $                                              3,140,483
Parkland PS  $                                              2,309,100
Randall PS  $                                              1,814,916
Thornlea SS  $                                              4,316,572
Unionville HS  $                                              7,692,672
Wilclay PS  $                                              1,495,320
Willowbrook PS  $                                              1,107,362

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. 

MPP Elliott: $72.1-Million of Disrepair in Newmarket-Aurora Schools

October 8, 2020

Dear MPP Elliott,

Did you know there is $72.1-million of disrepair in the publicly funded schools in your riding of Newmarket-Aurora?

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 $16.3-billion repair backlog (as of November 2019) that plagues Ontario’s schools:

Total disrepair in each publicly funded school in Newmarket-Aurora Riding:

Canadian Martyrs CES  $          1,995,699
Notre Dame CES  $             263,123
Sacred Heart CHS  $          3,697,853
St. Elizabeth Seton CES  $             687,832
St. Jerome CES  $             130,000
St. John Chrysostom CES  $               70,290
St. Maximilian Kolbe CHS  $             140,000
St. Nicholas CES  $          1,229,590
St. Paul CES  $          1,890,041
Alexander Muir PS  $             115,847
Armitage Village PS  $             602,408
Aurora Heights PS  $          1,040,393
Bogart PS  $          1,280,885
Clearmeadow PS  $          1,704,095
Crossland PS  $          1,229,562
Denne PS  $          2,874,868
Devins Drive PS  $          1,453,209
Dr John M Denison SS  $          5,479,453
Glen Cedar PS  $          1,412,822
Hartman PS  $               22,726
Huron Heights SS  $       18,337,683
J L R Bell PS  $          2,261,626
Lester B Pearson PS  $          1,009,062
Maple Leaf PS  $          4,711,432
Mazo De La Roche PS  $          2,413,219
Meadowbrook PS  $          3,523,312
Newmarket HS  $          3,575,364
Northern Lights PS  $             170,601
Poplar Bank PS  $             427,097
Prince Charles PS  $          2,250,573
Rogers PS  $               76,755
Sir William Mulock SS  $             881,510
Stonehaven ES  $          1,504,776
Stuart Scott PS  $          2,395,981
Terry Fox PS  $               71,960
ÉÉC SaintJean  $          1,042,239
ÉSC Renaissance  $               89,539

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. 

Total School Repair Backlog in Ontario Increases to $16.3-billion

November 12, 2019

In an Estimates Committee meeting last week, NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles unearthed that the total repair backlog for publicly funded schools in Ontario has increased from $15.9-billion in October 2017, when disrepair data for schools was last publicly shared by the Liberals to a whopping $16.3-billion today.

This newly released figure was highlighted in the Toronto Star article entitled, “Repair backlog in Ontario schools hits $16.3 billion” by Kristin Rushowy on November 6, 2019.

The issues of growing disrepair in Ontario’s schools and lead in drinking water at schools were both raised by NDP Leader Andrea Horwath during question period on November 6, 2019 as per the Hansard document from that day:

(QUESTION: REPAIR BACKLOG) Ms. Andrea Horwath: Well, Speaker, yesterday’s report on water quality in Ontario schools highlights the multibillion-dollar backlog in school repairs. Yesterday, in government estimates hearings, the Minister of Education was forced to admit that the backlog has gone from bad to worse under the Ford government. The repair backlog was $15.9 billion under the Liberals, and now it stands at $16.3 billion. 

Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s response was confusing. He stated that his government is committed to allocating $13-billion over 10 years to improving schools, which would be $1.3-billion each year for school renewal, repairs and rebuilding Ontario’s schools, and also a marked decrease in funding from the Liberals’ previous commitment of $16-billion over 10 years. Yet in the same response, he commits to maintaining $1.4-billion/year funding for repair and renewal of schools – not including building any new schools.

(ANSWER) Hon. Stephen Lecce: Mr. Speaker, what we affirmed at the committee yesterday, and for all families to hear in the province today, is that this government is allocating $13 billion over the next decade to improve schools in every region of the province of Ontario. What I also made clear is that we’re maintaining a $1.4-billion allocation to maintain our schools. After 15 years of dereliction of duty, where we had a multibillion-dollar backlog that we inherited, we must do more to improve our schools. We are putting money in the front lines, more than ever before, to ensure that our schools have the maintenance they need to ensure that they have the facilities that are conducive to positive learning for all students in the province of Ontario schools have the maintenance they need to ensure that they have the facilities that are conducive to positive learning for all students in the province of Ontario.

These numbers do not add up to having a positive impact on school conditions in this province and we need to see more done. The previous Liberal government had committed $16-billion over 10 years to improving schools. We now know that this funding commitment has not been sufficient to even begin to stem the tide of a consistent year-over-year increase in school disrepair. Total disrepair in Ontario’s schools has increased $400-million in the past two years to a whopping $16.3-billion, when yearly funding for school repairs and renewal during this same period has been $1.4-billion/year.

Therefore, it seems clear to Fix Our Schools that provincial funding of $1.4-billion/year for school renewal and repairs is simply insufficient. We are entirely confused by Minister Lecce’s belief that his government’s commitment of $13-billion over 10 years to improving schools – in essence a $3-billion cut over 10 years in funding compared to the previous Liberal government’s funding commitment – would somehow ensure that “our schools have the maintenance they need to ensure that they have the facilities that are conducive to positive learning for all students in the province of Ontario.”

We are still awaiting Minister Lecce and the Ministry of Education to release updated disrepair and FCI data in a more detailed format, that is comparable to the figures released back in October 2017 by the Liberal government. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) released its detailed disrepair data on October 31, 2019 and our hope is that the Ministry of Education will follow suit in the coming weeks.

 

Our contribution to the provincial pre-budget consultation process

January 22, 2018

Fix Our Schools contributed this submission to the provincial pre-budget consultation process. It highlights that the $1.4 billion/year our provincial government is currently allocating for school renewal is simply not enough to start to reduce the $15.9 billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools. To make up for the 20 years when provincial funding was a mere fraction of what it ought to have been as per industry standards, economist Hugh Mackenzie suggests that an additional investment of $1.6 billion/year is needed to start to truly fix Ontario’s schools as per the following breakdown:

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