By Steve Dominey
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s recent decision to approve a $564-million draft budget, including $50 million it does not have was the right move, says the board’s former chairman.
Albert Chambers, Centretown’s former board trustee, says the committee had limited options and was tired of being the province’s puppet.
“I think the board will continue to take this case to the public and force action from the province,” he says. “The trustees want the province to do what it should’ve done two years ago and sit down with boards all over this province and renegotiate the funding envelope and how it’s allocated for a public education.”
Instead of following previous recommendations by board staff to cut spending on junior kindergarten, special education and transportation, current chairman Jim Libbey said the board decided to use a tactic aimed at drawing attention to how Queen’s Park has been underfunding the city’s education system.
Of the $50-million “phantom budget,” the committee is counting on $26.4 million to bridge the gap between what the province provides to pay teachers and what their actual salaries and benefits are.
The board hopes for another $23.6 million in extra revenues from the province: $10 million for facilities operation and maintenance, $5.6 million for textbooks and school supplies, $5 million to upgrade transportation funding to the level of the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic board and $3 million for inflation and salary increases.
Scott Brownrigg, press secretary for Ontario Minister of Education Janet Ecker, says the province still expects Ottawa’s school board to present a balanced budget by June 15.
While the province is not happy with the draft budget, Brownrigg acknowledges the manoeuvre is well timed.
“They’re waiting to hear how much they’re going to receive so they do this,” he says. “Of course they would like more money for programs, it’s that time of year.”
Centretown trustee Joan Spice is optimistic the board will receive funding because provincial Conservative leadership candidates, such as Ernie Eves, have been hinting at it recently.
“We are expecting the province to provide us with more money,” she says. “The province has to respond because half of the public boards in the province have a deficit.”
The Toronto District School Board, for instance, is now considering a “Need to Succeed Budget” that would be some $371 million over expected provincial funding.
While Ottawa’s funding deficit hovers around $33.7 million, Toronto’s gap is around $150 million.
The Toronto board’s budget is a massive draft report based on a year of evaluation and community consultation. It has not yet been endorsed as next year’s spending plan.
Bill Filleter, chair of the Elgin Street school council, hopes schools do get their funding. Like many local parents, he is worried the phantom budget may not work, and will instead, give the province incentive to send in an auditor. “My worst fear is it coming to that,” says Filleter.
Ecker could order an investigation at any time if she becomes concerned the board will not meet expenses.
If the auditor came up with a plan to eliminate the board’s anticipated $33.7 million budget deficit and the commission ignored the minister’s orders to cut costs, it could be replaced by a government appointed supervisor.
The board would then lose all area control over elementary and high school education.
Spice says this scenario would be highly unlikely. “If (the province) did say no more money and we did say no more cuts, any reasonable investigator would side with us,” she says.
No matter what happens, Filleter supports the school board’s use of “make believe” money because he says it reflects the province in the light they deserve.
“Let’s fight the province the best we can and let people know it’s not the whim of the board and trustees to go and cut all these programs and benefits,” he says.
“We have to go to the wire now, the board’s made their decision and now we have to face (the province) down.”