As many students across Ontario have returned to in-person classes in recent weeks, Fix Our Schools wonders why our provincial government has fought against making decisions that would positively impact school children amidst the COVID pandemic, and in the long term.  Since our provincial government is the sole funder of schools and education in our province,  the only answer Fix Our Schools could surmise is that the Ford government would rather emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with money in its coffers rather than having invested in our schools and education system.  

In September, the Dufferin Peel Catholic School Board (DPCSB) wrote this letter to the Province, explaining that their school building ventilation needs alone would cost $60 million, whereas, at that point, the provincial government had only allocated $50-M for all school boards to improve ventilation. In this letter, the Chair of the DPCSB wrote, “we are cognizant that some classrooms, especially those located in school basements, do not have any windows.”

If you wonder why on earth children are learning in basement classrooms with no windows, consider the shocking lack of schools being built in the province.  In 2017, economist Hugh Mackenzie identified that, according to the government’s own data, Ontario needed  346 new schools built.

Instead of taking steps to build these much-needed new schools, the Ford government, which ran on a platform of “increasing local infrastructure funding”, instantly halted all processes in place to move new school buildings forward. This delay meant that for years, no new school buildings were approved and we are now years behind. In the opinion of Fix Our Schools, as long as children and teachers spend their days learning and working in windowless rooms, our government is failing us.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the mistake of not investing in school infrastructure. If you believe that schools ought to be safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working, then we must pressure the provincial government to start investing in schools and education now.