Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government is targeting school lands in his next bid to boost the province’s housing stock under wide-ranging legislation that puts his administration – not locally elected trustees – in charge of deciding which properties can be sold and developed.
In interviews with The Globe, trustees across the province said they are alarmed by the bill. By granting the government unlimited authority to set priorities for the public education system, they say, it further diminishes their role as stewards of school properties. Trustees know their local communities, making them more capable than a centralized government of planning for future growth, said Lyra Evans, chair of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
“There’s going to be a number of years where that school is going to look ludicrously underutilized,” Ms. Evans said. But it would be a mistake to sell the school, she said, because its proximity to downtown Ottawa is attracting urban dwellers who enjoy the area’s mix of residential and commercial spaces.An apartment building construction site in the Lebreton Flats neighbourhood of Ottawa, on June 29.
Ontario is not alone in taking decision-making out of the hands of local officials. In fact, two provinces have abolished school boards altogether. Nova Scotia dissolved its seven English-language boards and eliminated the role of trustees in 2018. The Harris government also removed the ability of school boards to generate their own capital funds for new schools by taxing homes and businesses. Under the current regime, each school board can submit up to five capital projects a year. The government has approved nearly 200 school construction projects since 2018.