Ontario Must Address $16.8 Billion School Repair Backlog
Whenever heavy rain hits Toronto’s Humberside Collegiate Institute, parts of the high school shut down.
Three floors of stairs are cordoned off due to flooding. Water leaks from the roof, reaching at least 20 spots throughout the school, where it collects in garbage bins. In the basement, a corridor lined with lockers is filled with deep puddles.
Bhutila Karpoche, the NDP MPP for Parkdale—High Park, described this scene in a widely viewed series of social media posts to draw the Progressive Conservative government’s attention to the disrepair of schools in Toronto and across the province.
“Successive governments, both Liberal and Conservative, have not funded school repairs, and now, they are literally crumbling,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday.
“I do not want to hear any talking points. I want the minister to fix the schools.”
Karpoche and the advocacy group Fix Our Schools report that the provincial school maintenance and repair backlog reached a staggering $16.8 billion in 2022 and continues to grow each year.
Krista Wylie, co-founder of Fix Our Schools and a parent of a student at Humberside Collegiate Institute, said they have been raising the alarm about this growing problem for a decade.
The group has received reports from school staff, students, and parents about classrooms where temperatures soar above 35°C in the summer and drop below 13°C in the winter. Other less visible concerns include air quality issues, growing mold, and inadequate fire systems, all of which contribute to unsafe learning and working conditions, she said.
The NDP and Fix Our Schools argue that the province needs to increase its funding. However, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce maintains that addressing the issue is the responsibility of the school boards.
In response to Karpoche’s concerns, Lecce told MPPs at Queen’s Park that he expects school boards, particularly the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), to “do their job.”
He highlighted the $1.4 billion allocated for school repairs in the current provincial budget.
In an email to CBC Toronto, the TDSB stated that staff are investigating the roof leak at Humberside Collegiate Institute, and staff and students will be redirected to alternate stairs and exits.
“Of note, while the TDSB spends millions of dollars each year on roof replacements and repairs, we currently have an overall maintenance and repair backlog of more than $4 billion,” the email reads.
The board reports that it spent about $370 million on repairs and related projects last year, marking a record amount, and expects to spend even more this year. Although it has approximately $380 million earmarked for similar projects this year, it has yet to formally spend it due to delays in receiving materials, obtaining approvals, and the availability of qualified contractors.
According to its website, over half of the TDSB’s schools are over 60 years old. The board has identified around 23,500 needed repairs, with 70 percent classified as critical or in poor condition.
The board estimates that if current provincial funding remains unchanged and no additional money is provided, the backlog could reach $4.9 billion by 2027.
Grade 11 student Jack Stone at Humberside Collegiate Institute said he and many other students have become accustomed to the flooding and know they will need to take a different route to class when it rains. However, he hopes this situation will not continue indefinitely.
