Centretown school trustee Jennifer McKenzie says the city’s older downtown schools are being denied key funds for necessary building upgrades.
McKenzie and Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi went on a tour of inner-city schools in late August and observed a shortage of adequate and accessible washrooms, insufficient parking, and small playgrounds in poor condition, among other physical problems.
“These schools were built in a totally different era,” says Naqvi, explaining that many lacked elevators and ramps. In one of the schools they visited, the gymnasium ceiling was leaking.
“It is clear to us that inner city schools … have been a low priority for capital funding projects for a long time and there are few plans to change this in the future,” said McKenzie in a report for the Kitchissippi Times.
Although aging scools get renewal money on a rotating basis for repair projects, McKenzie says these small grants won’t cut it.
“It isn’t going to be enough to give us money to repair the roof and patch this and that,” she says. “We need to be looking at some larger projects to address some of these long time issues.”
Naqvi says it was heartening to see that many historical schools are still in good shape, such as Lisgar Collegiate Institute.
“The boiler room looked up to date and work has been done on the gymnasium,” he says.
However, McKenzie says only the gym floors were replaced in that project and there is still room for improvement.
Naqvi adds that the school is at full capacity, and like many other downtown schools, is running out of space to expand.
David McMahon, the school’s principal, referred budget matters to the school board and said he was unable to comment.
McKenzie says the school board has applied for Prohibitive to Repair grants, used to demolish parts of schools to start from scratch, but has been denied funds because many historical schools are protected under the Heritage Act.
Instead, Naqvi says the school board should consider tapping into a $12-million provincial fund aimed at making buildings more environmentally friendly.
However, McKenzie says most of this money is being used to build new schools with environmentally friendly features.
“Right now the balance is 100 per cent tipped towards these large projects going to new schools in suburban areas,” says McKenzie.
Anne Teutsch, chair of the Ottawa Carleton Assembly of School Councils, says this has been an issue since the amalgamation of school boards in 1998.
“Seeing new schools built in the suburbs and older schools in disrepair in the downtown area can cause difficulties in the perception of fairness."
McKenzie says she has made it a priority to raise awareness at the school board, while Naqvi says he will continue pressing the provincial government to create grants for older schools.
“Our education system in the last six to seven years has gone a long way, but we can always do more,” says Naqvi. “I just want to make sure that inner-city schools remain quality in nature and we continue to provide good quality education.”