Ontario’s Education Minister says government-appointed supervisors working at several school boards could each earn up to $350,000 a year, paid out of the school boards’ own budgets.
Several boards — including Toronto public, Toronto Catholic, and Ottawa-Carleton — have been under supervision for months after the Ford government suspended local trustees for what it called poor management.
Education Minister Paul Calandra’s office said supervisors can charge $1,000 for a half-day of work, up to 3.5 days a week, for 50 weeks — adding up to $350,000 a year.
Calandra said he doesn’t track how much each supervisor bills but assumes most will charge the full amount.
“Truthfully, I don’t follow their billing,” he told Global News. “I budget as if they will be because there’s a lot of work to be done.”
He added that the money will come from the school boards’ budgets, not the Ministry of Education.
Calandra’s office also noted that trustees at the Toronto District School Board earned about $550,000 in total pay last year, but they no longer receive that money while under supervision. Trustees at Catholic boards still get part of their pay because of their constitutional role.
The Ford government has been pushing legislation to make it easier to take control of school boards — and has even suggested getting rid of trustees altogether. Critics say this would give too much power to Queen’s Park and take it away from local communities.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the high supervisor fees prove the government’s real goal is control, not saving money.
“This was never about saving money,” she said. “Do we want decisions made by someone in downtown Toronto billing hundreds of thousands, or by locally elected trustees who know their communities?”
Calandra defended the pay, saying $350,000 is fair for the size and complexity of the school boards.
“These are multi-billion-dollar organizations,” he said. “The supervisors are experts brought in to fix serious problems, and they deserve to be compensated for that work.”
