Tag Archives: EDCs

Onwards and Upwards But First …

January 5, 2021

Fix Our Schools was founded in 2014 with the goal of ensuring all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools were safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provided environments conducive to learning and working.  With some notable successes along the way, we continue to work towards this goal as we head into 2021. But first, a necessary reflection on the past year and on how Ontario’s provincial government handled school infrastructure in this unprecedented year.

Ontario’s school buildings began 2020 with at least a $16.3-billion repair backlog. While this number is staggering, it notably does not even include First Nations schools, portables, accessibility retrofits, water quality, air quality, or asbestos abatement.

Throughout a year like no other, Ontario’s school boards continued to be at the mercy of provincial funding and policies. While the Ford government maintained annual funding for school renewal and repairs at $1.4-billion/year, this level of funding has been shown to be grossly inadequate since disrepair in Ontario’s schools has continued to increase every year.

In fact, when the Ford government released its budget in November 2020, political economist Ricardo Tranjan declared it to be “really bad for Ontario education”.

https://twitter.com/ricardo_tranjan/status/1324491092147011584?s=20

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ford government actually shirked its responsibility to provide adequate, stable funding for schools and education when it ‘allowed’ school boards to dip into their own reserve funds to try to fund what was actually needed to ensure schools were safe, healthy environments.

Throughout 2020, the Ford government continued to drag its heels on new school builds and expansions across the province, leaving us almost 2 years behind in this process. 

When schools were shuttered in late March 2020 and left empty for months, the Ford government missed the opportunity to invest in school repairs and improvements, such as accessibility retrofits, that could have been done much more safely without students in these buildings. Even for repair and renewal projects that were particularly relevant amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, such as those focused on improving ventilation in schools, the Ford government dragged its heels in allocating any funding to school boards to take action on improvements. 

At the same time that Ontario’s provincial government was unable to take the necessary action to invest in school infrastructure that would provide safe, healthy environments for learning and working, especially amidst a pandemic, our federal government was doing very little to ensure First Nations schools were safe. Many of Ontario’s First Nations schools still do not even have clean drinking water, let alone the type of infrastructure that would be safe and healthy during a pandemic.

https://twitter.com/cbcreporter/status/1298973279923793920?s=20https://twitter.com/cbcreporter/status/1298973279923793920?s=20

The Ford government also failed to make needed changes to an outdated regulation guiding the eligibility for and use of Education Development Charges, so developers continued to get away without contributing to school infrastructure, from which they profit.

Our provincial government chose to ignore an opportunity to fund any outdoor education plans, which could have been a helpful component of a safe return to school in September. 

And, since taking office in June 2018, the Ford government has refused to publish updated disrepair data for Ontario’s 5,000 schools. This data is collected with taxpayer dollars, and citizens deserve transparency into the state of school buildings. 

Looking back on 2020, we realize a “silver lining” of the global pandemic relative to schools is that substantively more attention has been paid to the condition of school buildings. Ventilation, drinking water, and air quality may not be sexy topics, but Canadians now appreciate their importance. Media coverage of the state of school buildings was intense in 2020. With the ardent support of Fix Our School followers, we helped to keep a full conversation about safe, well-maintained schools in the press.

With your ongoing support, we intend to continue our work towards ensuring Ontario schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings for all students and teachers. Onwards and upwards to 2021.

Toronto Developers Short-changing Local Public Schools

September 22, 2020

Ever since Fix Our Schools began in 2014, we’ve been absolutely stymied by how our provincial government could allow an outdated regulation to continue, which allows Toronto developers to get away without contributing one penny to the local TDSB public school infrastructure, from which they profit. Under two successive provincial governments, Fix Our Schools has been unsuccessful in achieving a change to the provincial regulation O.Reg 20/98 that guides the eligibility for and application of Education Development Charges (EDCs).

In the years since 2014, the Toronto District School Board has also requested the Province look into a change of this outdated regulation and, in fact, went so far as to file with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that this provincial regulation is “constitutionally inoperative and unfair”. Other stakeholders, such as the Ontario Public School Board Association (OPSBA) and Toronto City Council, have also requested the Ontario government to revisit O.Reg 20/98.

But to no avail – as of September 21, 2020, Toronto Developers continue to get away without contributing one penny to local TDSB school infrastructure. However, there is a renewed interest in changing this outdated provincial regulation with the release of a joint paper entitled, “The Missing Money Our Schools Need Now: Education Development Charges in Toronto”.

This newly-released report by Fix Our Schools, the Broadbent Institute, and Progress Toronto is featured in a September 22 Toronto Star article by Jennifer Pagliaro entitled, “Other Ontario school boards can collect millions from developers – but not the TDSB”. Pagliaro highlights from the report that “amid a pandemic, the time is now for the province to allow the TDSB to collect fees from developers to help build and repair packed and aging schools — money that’s now needed to make necessary adjustments for social distancing, fresh air and more.”

On Sunday, September 27, the Toronto Star Editorial Board published the opinion that “Ontario is needlessly handcuffing TDSB’s ability to repair and build schools”. The editorial piece agrees with Fix Our Schools, the Broadbent Institute, and Progress Toronto that there is an inherent problem with the outdated provincial regulation guiding the eligibility for and application of EDCs, and emphasizes that “the COVID-19 pandemic has also shown how inadequate infrastructure can make it hard to keep kids safe: cramped classrooms, lack of proper ventilation (such as windows that open), and the absence of handwashing sinks in classrooms all make preventing the spread of infections extremely difficult.”

If you would like to see Toronto developers pay into the local public schools from which they profit, please take a minute to sign this petition and tell Premier Ford to make developers pay their fair share. A simple change of this outdated provincial regulation could allow the Toronto District School Board to collect millions of dollars that could be invested in school retrofits (such as ventilation), repairs, expansions, and new schools.

In response to the release of this new report, Saman Tabasinejad from Progress Toronto is quoted as saying, “The overcrowded and crumbling schools in growing neighbourhoods is an equity issue. Toronto had 150 over-capacity schools before the COVID-19 shutdown and the pandemic has only exposed the public health risk of packed schools and infrastructure that is in disrepair. The missing money is creating another systemic barrier standing in the way of building healthy, inclusive communities, at the expense of equity-seeking communities.”

Katrina Miller from the Broadbent Institute said, “We can fix our schools by fixing this outdated regulation. Our schools are old and cramped because developers exploited a loophole, pocketing hundreds of millions that should have gone to make our kids’ schools safe.”

And Krista Wylie from Fix Our Schools stated, “Our call for action has support from left-wing City Councillors to Conservative MPPs. Developers profit from building near good public schools and transit. These same developers ought to contribute monetarily to this public infrastructure. The fact that developers in Toronto have gotten away for so long without contributing one penny to public schools is maddening when so many Toronto schools are overcrowded and in disrepair.”

In this pandemic environment, school infrastructure that is safe, healthy, well-maintained, and not crowded is even more important. Now is the time for our provincial government to make the simple regulatory change required to see Toronto developers start paying their fair share to TDSB schools.

Developers Ought to Contribute to the Neighbourhoods from which they Profit

May 13, 2019

Ever since founding the Fix Our Schools campaign in 2014, we’ve believed strongly that developers ought to contribute financially to the public infrastructure in the neighbourhoods where they choose to build. We believe developers choose to build in neighbourhoods that maximize profitability – which generally means where there are good local schools and other public goods like public transit and community spaces. Therefore, it only makes sense that developers contribute financially to the public infrastructure that allows them to profit.

Since 2014, we’ve urged the provincial government to change its outdated regulation guiding the eligibility for and use of Education Development Charges (EDCs), which prevented many Ontario school boards from collecting development fees and limited usage of said fees to only the purchase of new land.

On May 2, 2019 Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, announced the “More homes, more choice: Ontario’s Housing Supply Action Plan”, which includes the following proposed changes to the EDC regulation:

  • Allow only modest increases in EDCs to help make housing more affordable
  • Allow for innovative and lower-cost alternatives to site acquisition.

Neither of these proposed changes does anything to address the fact that millions of dollars are being left in developers pockets every year rather than being used to contribute to school infrastructure in the communities where they are profiting. Similarly, these proposed changes do nothing to address the limitation of the current regulation that only allows school boards to use EDCs for purchasing new land, which simply doesn’t make sense in densely populated urban areas. We’ve requested a meeting with Education Minister Thompson to better understand these proposed changes but at first blush, we are sad to see a lost opportunity to improve the school conditions where 2-million Ontario children spend their days.

Pressure on Province to change EDC rules continues

November 12, 2017

On Friday, November 10, 2017, the TDSB released its updated disrepair data for each of its 584 schools and the news is not good. What was a $3.5 billion repair backlog a year ago has grown to $3.7 billion.

two screwdrivers, some screwsAs Andrea Gordon reports on the November 10, 2017 in the Toronto Star article article entitled, “Toronto board wants developer levies used to fix aging schools“, “Despite improved funding from the province over the last few years, the $297 million for the current school year “is not enough to keep pace with the accumulated backlog and future repair needs. Without “adequate and predictable school funding for school repairs,” the board projected the bill will reach $5.25 billion by 2021.”

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Is a change in outdated EDC provincial regulation coming?

November 9, 2017

Lots of stakeholders are getting involved in the discussion about Education Development Charges (EDCs), urging the provincial government to consider changing the outdated regulation that dictates which school boards are eligible to collect EDC money from new developments and how those school boards can use that money.

In the last few weeks:

  1. The Ontario Public School Boards Association (OPSBA) sent this letter  to Education Minister Hunter, highlighting the need for changes to allow for more local flexibility to address  capital and renewal needs.
  2. City Councillors in Toronto called on the provincial government to make a change to allow all local school boards to collect levies from developers. In the November 7, 2017 Toronto Star article, entitled “Developers should help pay to expand overcrowded schools”, Councillor Mike Layton said, “It’s “a no-brainer” that builders should contribute to costs of school infrastructure”.
  3.  TDSB Trustees have continued petitioning the province to change the outdated regulations that guide the eligibility for and use of EDC money. You can see coverage below on CityNews Toronto and sign the petition here!

TDSB trustees petition ministry over policy change to access existing repair funds

4. Parents and community members have continued to call on the Province for change as illustrated in the October 29, 2017 Toronto Star article written by Andrea Gordon, “Parents want developers to kick in and help expand overcrowded toronto schools”.

Lots of stakeholders all asking for change! Will the Province listen? Or continue to leave much needed money for school buildings on the table?

To the Ministry of Education…

January 18, 2016

Each year, the Ministry of Education seeks input from various stakeholders before determining funding for school boards for the upcoming school year. The Fix Our Schools campaign has made a written submission in each of the past two years.

Here is the cover letter, which provides an overview for you of what Fix Our Schools submitted to the Ministry in November, 2015 for use in determining funding for school boards for the 2016/17 school year:

Fix Our Schools is a grassroots, non-partisan, parent-led campaign asking for safe, well-maintained Ontario public school buildings that are funded as an integral part of our public infrastructure – on par with transit.

All 72 publicly funded School Boards in the province face capital repair backlogs, for a total of over $15-billion of disrepair in Ontario schools. The $11-billion in capital grants to School Boards over ten years is insufficient to address this unacceptable disrepair. New funding solutions must be found. Please give immediate consideration to:

  • Revising O. Reg. 20/98 to allow all School Boards to access EDCs and use EDC money for repairs, capital projects or land purchase
  • Allocating some of the promised new federal infrastructure funding to increase investment in repairing and rebuilding Ontario’s public schools
  • Allocating the capital costs of maintaining school buildings and associated green spaces used as Community Hubs, in proportion to usage by various public and community entities

The 2-million children who attend Ontario public schools deserve to have safe, well-maintained buildings; as do the countless children who attend childcare/early learning programs in these same schools; the adults who work every day in these buildings; and the community members who rely upon these buildings as important Community Hubs.

We trust that Kathleen Wynne’s provincial government will take the lead in working together with School Boards, Municipalities, other Ministries, and the Federal Government to find the funding solutions needed to Fix Our Schools.

When will our provincial government allow all school boards to access Education Development Charges?

January 6, 2016

Our provincial government must take responsibility for the $15-billion of disrepair that has accumulated in Ontario’s schools. The 2015 Auditor-General’s report confirmed that $1.4 billion per year is needed to maintain Ontario schools in a state of good repair. However, actual annual funding in the last five years has ranged from only $150 million to $500 million. This gross underfunding of school infrastructure by our provincial government means that an unacceptable level of disrepair has accumulated in our public schools and will continue to worsen…unless funding solutions are found.

One avenue for new funding sources would be for the provincial government to change O. Reg 20/98, which guides the collection and use of Education Development Charges (EDCs). The existing regulation is now antiquated and prevents many school boards from receiving money from new condo/housing/commercial developments within that board. Furthermore, the existing regulation only allows school boards to use EDC money for purchasing new land – not for building new schools or building new additions or repairing existing schools.

Therefore, in Fix Our Schools’ Submission to the Ministry’s 2016/17 Funding Consultation, we recommended that the Ministry of Education change O. Reg 20/98 so that every School Board can benefit financially from new residential and commercial development within its boundaries; and can use Education Development Charges (EDCs) for repairs, capital projects, or purchasing new land. 

All 72 publicly funded School Boards in the province face capital repair backlogs, for a total of over $15-billion of disrepair in Ontario schools. The $11-billion in capital grants to School Boards over ten years that Premier Wynne and her government have committed is simply insufficient to address this issue. New funding solutions must be found. Given the ease with which a provincial regulation can be changed, when are Premier Wynne and Education Minister Sandals going to prioritize changing Regulation 20/98 as a new potential revenue source for many school boards in this province? Certainly, EDCs do not hold the potential to be the complete solution… but any new funding for school infrastructure in this province would be beneficial!

The two million children who attend Ontario public schools deserve safe, well-maintained schools that are conducive to learning, as do the adults who work in these buildings every day.

Education Development Charges (EDCs) 101

November 16, 2014

Fix Our Schools believes that the Provincial regulation guiding the collection and use of EDCs must be changed. The TDSB agrees, as do many other school boards across the province. We’ve been lobbying the Province for change and so has the TDSB.

Check these out to find out what the TDSB has been doing:

TDSB Press Release re: EDCs

TDSB EDC Report

TDSB Letter to Minister of Education re: EDCs

TDSB Letter to Premier re: EDCs 

 

TDSB’s $1 million deal with condo developer

November 16, 2014

The TDSB recently accepted $1 million from a developer to build a new playground in exchange for abandoning the plan to work alongside the City to fight the planned development at the upcoming Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing. The proposed development casts a shadow over the entire school yard every morning, creating a sub-optimal play space for students.

Why would the TDSB agree to such a deal? Sadly, because it made sense when weighing the guaranteed $1 million from the developer against the uncertain $400,000 compensation if the OMB hearing resulted in a win.

Developers should be contributing financially to TDSB schools in communities where they build via Education Development Charges (EDCs).  However, due to current provincial regulations, the TDSB doesn’t qualify so instead, we see these one-off deals where developers only contribute to public schools when backed into a corner.

The Province must change the regulation guiding the collection and use of EDC’s so that TDSB schools benefit routinely from new development. The TDSB has been lobbying the Province  to do this since January, 2014 and Fix Our Schools has been lobbying the Province on this issue since May, 2014.  To find out more about EDCs, visit Education Development Charges 101