Ontario appoints supervisor to oversee Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

The provincial government is taking control of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and appointing a supervisor. CTV’s Kimberley Fowler reports.

The Ontario government is taking control of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and appointing a supervisor, after Ottawa’s largest school board posted four straight deficit budgets, including a projected $9.2 million deficit this past school year.

Ontario launched a financial investigation into the school board in April, with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP asked to assess the school board’s financial position.

Education Minister Paul Calandra announced that following the audit, Robert Plamondon will be appointed supervisor of the board.

“The OCDSB has completely depleted its reserves, incurred an accumulated deficit, and plans to use unsustainable proceeds from the sale of assets to balance its books,” the Ontario government said in a statement.

Calandra said the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has had “multiple opportunities” to address financial issues, and “time and again they failed to do so.”

Ontario is also appointing supervisors to oversee the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board and Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.

“There are decisions that are made at each of these boards where they have chosen to avoid accountability, have chosen not to bring their budgets into balance,” Callandra said.

“If you look at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, not only are they running multi-year deficits. Even when they’ve promised to come back to balance, they have not lived up to that responsibility. It’s a board where multiple trustees have resigned, where parents are frustrated over things that the board is doing.”

Calandra said the supervisors will “have a clear mandate to get these boards back on track.”

“They’ll take a close look at how these boards are run, find savings and make the changes needed to restore responsible management and maximize support for classroom education,” Calandra said.

“Their focus will be on ensuring that every decision made by the board prioritizes direct support for students in the classroom.”

Earlier this month, OCDSB trustees approved the $1.2 billion budget for the 2025-26 school year with $18 million in spending cuts. The plan, which eliminates 135 positions, includes spending reductions of $4.98 million for special education, $5.97 million in administration spending and $4.22 million in reductions on instruction.

Staff told trustees the board is looking at selling vacant buildings and cutting some adult high school and special education programs to find savings. The long-term savings plan presented by trustees included looking at a divestment of properties, including McGregor Easson Public School.

The OCDSB is projecting an accumulated deficit of $9.2 million in 2024-25, up from $5.9 million in 2023-24.

The audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP found the “majority of savings” initiatives during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years were introduced by OCDSB management without requiring approval. The report shows $35 million in savings were adopted by management without requiring trustee approval, while trustees approved $9 million in savings.

The audit recommended the Ontario government take control of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board due to its accumulated deficit in 2023-24 and probable accumulated deficits for 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

Auditors did say there was no evidence of “serious financial mismanagement.”

“Throughout the work conducted we did not find any examples of reckless or deliberate wrongdoing, lack of financial oversight or governance or actions resulting in potential reputational damage,” the audit said.

Calandra wouldn’t say how long Plamondon will remain as supervisor of the OCDSB, saying he has “whatever time is needed” in order to bring the budget back into balance and “put them on a sustainable course to financial stability for years to come.”

Plamondon will be required to provide the Ministry of Education with regular updates on his work, address the “deteriorating financial position” of the board and identify where savings measures can be implemented.

Zone 9 trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth and Zone 10 trustee Justine Bell resigned from the OCDSB earlier this month.