Chris Moise

Thinking about the school days of my youth brings back a flood of memories. I remember it as a place where I could get lost in my imagination at recess and learn hard lessons in and out of the classroom.

School is a place students are supposed to do one thing and do it well: learn. To do this, however, there must be a safe, secure and inviting environment. When I attended school, I felt, for the most part, secure and safe, and that it was full of ways to become engaged.

Last month, I attended a Toronto District School Board presentation about the board’s operating budget for 2014-2015. It was quite telling. The budget is estimated to be $3 billion. For the first time in over a decade, the operating budget deficit was at its lowest: $12.4 million. TDSB staff expressed confidence that they can find savings to balance the shortfall.

Although the TDSB is the largest school board in Canada, over half of its students consider English a second language; The board isn’t provided with provincial government support needed to allow young people to excel to their full potential. In terms of funding per student, TDSB is treated like any other school board in the province with some minor exceptions regarding “grants for student needs,” which doesn’t come close to fully addressing some of the needs in our schools.

Perhaps what should be of even greater concern to us is the backlog of capital expenses at the TDSB. The Ontario government’s own audit has shown that there are 202 TDSB schools in critical condition—nearly half of the TDSB’s 588 operating schools. Forty one of these schools need extensive renovations at a total cost of $3.2 billion. How do we start to address this issue—and soon?

The Ontario government does have a significant deficit right now and as a homeowner and taxpayer, I am not advocating for an increase in property taxes to cover the massive cost of school repairs. However, we do have some options at our disposal.

For example, the provincial government levies Education Development Charges (EDCs) throughout Ontario to help cover the cost of new sites that result from population growth and municipal expansion. EDCs are funds that a developer is charged for each new residential unit sold. As of 2014, the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) collects $1303 for each residential unit and $0.94 per square foot of non-residential space.

At present, EDCs cannot be used by school boards to fund capital repairs the TDSB desperately needs. Since the provincial government sets policy governing EDCs, a change to this policy would go a long way towards addressing maintenance backlog.

At this point, the TDSB doesn’t qualify for EDCs given the board’s excess space across the system. As written in the TDSB’s Financial Facts and Expenditure Trends Report, “City of Toronto planning information indicates that there are applications for an additional 277,000 new residential units in 2014. Based in the current TCDSB’s EDC rate, if the TDSB was treated equally it is estimated that this projected growth would generate nearly $300 million of much needed revenue to meet the capital needs of the board.”

EDCs that could be raised from these units, approximately $360 million, could go directly to offsetting the $3.2 billion maintenance backlog. It would be a reliable funding stream that would repair our schools as needed year after year.

Indisputably, these repairs are necessary to provide a safe and sound environment now and also to support future growth. Although it is a common belief that condo living doesn’t support family life, recent TDSB studies reveal that families are indeed being raised in condos. This reality creates a need for the schools that already exist to be maintained because these new residential developments will bring children. If the community can’t handle the rapid influx of students, then these children will be bussed out of their communities to the nearest schools with capacity. We should be repairing the older infrastructure that is already here—some of it hundreds of years old—in order to ensure that facilities provide modern water systems and sound systems in safe and secure environments.

The hurdle we face is convincing the province to address this situation and to rework legislation surrounding EDCs. The needs of the TDSB are different from other school boards owing to significant demographic and geographic differences: 54% of people in Toronto are visible minorities and our geography is vastly different from other provincial school boards.

As a kid, the least of my worries was the structural integrity, or soundness, of the school I attended. That’s not the case with TDSB today. Not only are the communities we live in affected by this situation, but also property values are negatively affected by decaying schools.

Help bring improvement to this very important issue by calling your provincial representative, Minister of Education and the Premier’s Office.