Ministry of Education launches investigation into OCDSB finances
Investigator can recommend the ministry take control of the school board's budget
The province is launching a financial investigation into the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), which may lead to the ministry taking control of its budget.
Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra announced Wednesday the provincial government was launching an investigation into three boards and taking control of another over financial mismanagement.
The OCDSB has run a deficit for the last four years and is projecting a possible $20-million shortfall in its upcoming budget — if it can't cut costs.
"I'm disappointed that they haven't given us a little more time to address this," OCDSB chair Lynn Scott told CBC Radio's All In A Day.
The board has already reduced its transportation costs and announced in March it plans to cut 150 full-time jobs, Scott said.
But on Wednesday, Calandra said he would take "relentless" action to ensure "hard-earned tax dollars" reach school classrooms.
The OCDSB was one of five school boards Calandra singled out for financial mismanagement, which he said was becoming a "troubling trend in the education sector."
The investigator's report, due on May 30, will recommend whether the OCDSB should hand over control of its finances to the Ministry of Education.
Two stories
The ministry is also taking control of a London school board, launching financial investigations into two Toronto school boards and ordering a Brantford school board to pay back public money spent on a trip to Italy.
"We're providing record levels of funding," Calandra said. "We expect that to be made available to teachers so that they [can] give our students the ultimate ability to succeed."
But Scott said the school board needs more funding from the province to cover shortfalls. She noted the need for more staff, especially for students in special education.
The share of Ontario's budget spent on education has steadily declined from 24.8 per cent in 1990-91 to 18.8 per cent in 2023-24, according to a report released earlier this month by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, an independent watchdog.
When adjusted for factors like inflation, it found that the total sum spent on education grew by around 0.7 per cent per child in that time.
Funding from the province to repair schools and address capacity issues fell short by $12.7 billion over ten years, the agency reported in December.
Decision not surprising, education director says
OCDSB director of education Pino Buffone said the school board is on a quest to address its financial troubles.
He said Wednesday's news wasn't really a surprise, nor does it interfere with the board's ongoing restructuring of elementary schools.
This doesn't disrupt out plan. This explains our plan.- Pino Buffone, OCDSB director of education
"This doesn't disrupt our plan," Buffone said. "This explains our plan.
"For quite a while now as an organization, we've realized that we do need to address some structural issues. The program review at the elementary level, again, is a fine example of that."
Buffone said he sees a difference between ongoing structural deficits and questionable spending decisions made by other boards.
The OCDSB came close to landing in the black last year, he said, but retroactive settlements related to Bill 124 and an increase in overall costs — whether for a classroom resource or a roll of toilet paper — prevented that.
The director said changes in demand for mental health and well-being are also pressures faced by the board.
"That's why I think it's very difficult to simply compare an absolute dollar amount of one year to the next when you don't consider those underlying factors of change," he said.
On Thursday, Calandra said if cost-of-living increases really are the sole cause of the board's financial woes, then it has nothing to fear.
"That's what the investigator will find when they go into the board and look at the finances," he told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.
The minister said the recent Bill 124 settlements exceed inflation. An estimated 85 per cent of all board spending is in the form of staffing costs, he said, adding that the ministry has put record levels of funding into mental health.
The financial investigator's report is due a little more than a week after the board is supposed to review a restructuring of its elementary schools and just four days after staff are scheduled to present budget recommendations.
In its report, the financial investigator can recommend that the OCDSB give control of its finances over to the ministry of education. That last happened in 2002 and was met with community pushback after cuts were announced.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from CBC Radio's All in a Day