Education minister tells Toronto school board to find budget savings or ‘I will take you over’

FILE - Paul Calandra, Ontario Minister for Municipal Affairs and Housing, attends a news conference at Queen's Park Legislature in Toronto on Thursday December 12, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra warned Canada’s largest school board that the province will take over control unless they find savings and balance its budget.

Calandra made the remark during Question Period on Thursday when asked about the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) proposal to close some swimming pools and eliminate several music instructor positions to address its $58 million deficit for the 2025-2026 school year.

“The Toronto District School Board has been running deficits, multi-year deficits. What they are being asked to do is find savings of less than two per cent on an over $3 billion budget. Now, they did exactly what I expected them to do, right? They last night attacked students and teachers as opposed to finding savings,” Calandra said, referring to Wednesday night’s TDSB finance and budget committee meeting where staff presented several measures to balance the budget.

The education minister, who recently announced that the province would launch an investigation into the TDSB’s finances, gave a stern warning to the board: “Do the right thing for students, do the right thing for teachers, and if you don’t, I will take you over and I will put the board back on track.”

Calandra suggested that instead of cutting those programs, the TDSB should reduce the number of superintendents it has and go after the $35 million of paid leave. He claimed the number of TDSB superintendents on the Sunshine List has grown. (The list discloses public sector salaries over $100,000. It should be noted out that the threshold has not been adjusted for inflation since it was established in 1996.)

“We are not looking at that at the TDSB. Why? Because the TDSB and the trustees are all about protecting themselves at the expense of students and the expense of teachers,” Calandra said.

He added: “The investigator will find a way to put the board back on track, and if they don’t do it, I will take it over and do it for them.”

The province has already taken control of the Thames Valley District School Board following an investigation that found the board has been running significant deficits.

The TDSB has clarified that the closing of pools and elimination of the music teaching positions are just options being considered, and no final decisions have been made.

Probe an attempt to deflect responsibility: trustee

During Wednesday’s meeting, TDSB director of education Clayton La Touche acknowledged that what staff are proposing will affect the student experience.

“Just know that had other options having less impact and presenting less difficult circumstances been available, those are the options that staff would have brought forward, and please understand that we bring these options forward because they are required for us to meet our statutory obligations,” La Touche said. All school boards must pass a balanced budget by June 30.

In a special board meeting on Wednesday, trustees were informed by TDSB staff that the ministry has not provided further details about the investigation, including its scope.

Trustee Shelley Laskin said during the meeting that she believes the investigation is not really about the board’s finances.

“This is only about underfunding public education in the City of Toronto and attempting to deflect from the minister’s responsibility,” Laskin said.

On Wednesday night, Trustee Dan MacLean, the chair of the TDSB’s finance and budget committee, was critical of Calandra’s implication that the board was mismanaging its finances.

MacLean said education funding has not kept up with inflation, and the TDSB continues to deal with that. He noted that the TDSB is the “most transparent public entity in the province.”“It is my personal opinion that if the minister and his staff are serious about wanting to locate the source of the TDSB’s persistent budget challenges, I respectfully suggest that he and his team look in the mirror,” MacLean said.

With files from CTV Toronto’s Phil Tsekouras and The Canadian Press