Thursday, October 1, 2026

The committee met at 0900 in room 151.

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

Good morning, everyone. The Standing Committee on Social Policy will now come to order. Before we begin, I would like to provide some comments on the estimates process. In the past, members have been allowed to ask a wide range of questions pertaining to the estimates before the committee. However, it must be noted that the onus is on the members asking the questions to make sure the question is relevant to the estimates under consideration. Are there any questions from members before we start?

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

We will now begin consideration of the 2026-27 estimates of the Ministry of Education for a total of three hours. From the Ministry of Education, we are joined by the Honourable Paul Calandra, Minister of Education; the deputy minister; and ministry staff. As a reminder, the ministry is required to monitor the proceedings for any questions or issues that the ministry undertakes to address. I am now required to call vote 1001, which sets the review process in motion. We will now begin with a statement of not more than 20 minutes from the Minister of Education. Minister, the floor is yours.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Awesome. Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the members of the committee for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Ministry of Education’s 2026-27 estimates. As was mentioned, I’m joined by assistant deputy minister Rupert Gordon and members of our senior leadership team at the Ministry of Education. I want to begin, of course, by thanking them and the thousands of public servants, educators, principals, support staff, child care professionals and others across the province who work every day to support Ontario students. Mr. Chair, the Ministry of Education has, obviously, an enormous responsibility. More than two million students attend publicly funded schools in Ontario, and their parents trust us to make sure that when they send their children to school every morning, these children are safe, supported and learning. Taxpayers trust us to make sure the significant resources they provide to our education system are being used responsibly, and students trust us to give them the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed after they leave our classrooms. Those responsibilities are at the centre of the estimates before the committee. For 2026-27, the Ministry of Education’s estimates include approximately $39.4 billion in operating expenses. Within that, Ontario is providing $30.6 billion in core education funding for the 2026-27 school year. This is obviously a significant investment by the people of the province of Ontario in our publicly funded education system. Our position as a government is very straightforward: with record investments must come a clear expectation of results. More funding must translate into better outcomes for students. It must mean stronger reading, math and writing skills. It must mean safe and orderly classrooms. It must mean students attending school, participating in their education and being prepared for what comes next. It must mean parents get answers when something is not working, and it must mean that every part of our education system understands that its first responsibility is to the students it serves. This is the basis behind the work we have undertaken over the past year. Chair, I have said since becoming Minister of Education that student achievement must be the guiding principle of our ministry. While that sounds obvious—the work that we undertake is guided by that, but when we look at a system as large as it is, it is very easy for the process, structures and institutions to become the focus as opposed to the student. Our job is to keep bringing the focus back to the student sitting at the desk. Can the student read at a grade level? Can they write clearly? Do they understand math? Are they attending school consistently? Are they getting the support they need when they fall behind? And when they graduate, do they have the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to succeed in university, college, an apprenticeship or a good-paying career? Those are the outcomes that matter. Last week, Ontario received the latest EQAO results. There is encouraging news in those results. Students made progress in grades 3, 6 and 9, and literacy remained strong, with nearly nine in 10 students meeting the provincial standard in reading and writing by grade 6. We should recognize that progress, of course, and recognize the work of teachers, students and the families who have helped achieve it. But we should not confuse progress with completion. Too many students are still not meeting the provincial standard. Achievement gaps continue to exist and outcomes continue to vary significantly across Ontario. Those results reinforce the approach we have taken: Use the evidence, identify where students are struggling, determine what is working and direct resources toward improving outcomes. This is why our government continues to invest in foundational skills. The 2026 Ontario budget provides continued funding to support strengthened achievement, including investments in digital math tools and math facilitators, early reading supports and screening, online learning opportunities, student mental health and supports for students with special education needs. We’re also investing more money to give teachers across Ontario access to consistent, high-quality resources in their classroom. This year, we’ve invested $60 million in modernized learning resources in a new province-wide digital learning platform. The goal is consistency and results. We are providing teachers with ready access to high-quality, curriculum-aligned materials so they don’t have to spend their time searching the Internet for them or creating them from scratch. We also know that people doing the work in classrooms need the resources to do their jobs. While school boards receive funding for classroom resources, we have not always seen those dollars consistently reach every classroom. For decades, teachers have told governments that they were buying basic classroom materials out of their own pockets. This is why we are putting funds directly into the hands of teachers to ensure their classrooms are equipped to support student achievement. Beginning this school year, eligible elementary homeroom teachers have direct access to $750 annually for classroom supplies. Our government is investing approximately $66 million per year in the new Classroom Supplies Fund. That funding is in addition to the millions in existing funding school boards receive for classroom and school supplies. The idea behind the program is simple: We want the right resources getting into the classrooms. We want teachers to have what they need to support the students so they can focus on teaching. That same principle applies to students who require additional support. Ontario’s projected special education funding for the 2026-27 school year is approximately $3.83 billion. Those resources support educational assistants, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists and other professionals. They support professional assessments, specialized equipment, early math intervention and programs for students with complex needs. Now, we know that no two students are exactly alike. For some students, success requires more support. Our responsibility is to make sure funding is available, but also to continue to examine where those resources are reaching students effectively and whether the system is producing better outcomes. Mr. Chair, that brings me to accountability. Ontario taxpayers, as I said earlier, make an extraordinary investment in public education. That creates an obligation for every institution in the education system to operate with transparency, responsibility and relentless focus on students. As minister, I have made sure our government has acted when I believed that obligation was not being met. We’ve seen examples of serious financial challenges, governance dysfunction and internal conflict at boards. These situations are not abstract governance problems. When leadership becomes distracted by dysfunction, it is students that pay the price. When finances are not managed responsibility, resources that should go to the classroom are put at risk. And when parents cannot get straightforward answers from their school board, confidence in the public education system suffers. That is why our government has passed the Putting Student Achievement First Act. The legislation strengthens accountability across the education system and gives the province additional tools to make sure school boards remain focused on their core responsibilities. It provides greater provincial oversight in areas including board finances, expenses, educational materials and student assessment. It also modernizes leadership structures in English-language school boards by establishing distinct chief executive officer and chief educational officer responsibilities. The purpose is straightforward: Running a large school board is an enormous operational responsibility. At the same time, improving teaching and learning is an enormous educational responsibly. We want clear accountability for both, and where boards face serious governance or financial problems that threaten their ability to serve students, the province must be prepared to act. We have demonstrated that we will. Provincial supervision is not something that should be undertaken lightly, but neither should the Minister of Education stand by when persistent dysfunction or financial instability threatens student learning. Our expectation is simple: School boards receive billions of dollars in public funding. They’re expected to manage those resources responsibly and keep their attention where it belongs: on students. Accountability also means accountability to parents. For too long, parents have told us that navigating the school board can be frustrating. When an issue cannot be resolved at the school level, families should know where to go next. They should not have to understand the internal organizational chart of a school board simply to get an answer about their child. That is why, at the start of this school year, we launched student and family support offices across all 72 boards. These offices provide families with an additional pathway to get answers, navigate more complex concerns and resolve issues. This is not about replacing the important relationship between the parent and a teacher or a principal; it is about ensuring there is a clear escalation pathway when an issue cannot be resolved. Parents are partners in their child’s education system, and our education system should treat them that way. We are also bringing greater consistency to expectations for students, because showing up matters, participation matters, effort matters. Schools cannot help students if students are chronically absent from the classroom. We are continuing to strengthen expectations around attendance and participation because education is not simply about receiving a final mark; it’s about developing the knowledge, habits and skills that students will need throughout their lives. Mr. Chair, student achievement also requires the right physical environment, and in too many parts of the province, families have watched subdivisions go up faster than schools. Our government is changing that. Ontario is investing $30 billion over 10 years to build, expand and renew schools. This September alone, 35 new expanded schools opened across the province. Those projects created approximately 18,300 new student spaces and more than 1,100 licensed child care spaces. Earlier this year, our government announced another $1.6 billion for 79 school construction projects, creating more than 29,000 student spaces and an additional 1,900 licensed child care spaces. But, again, announcing funding is not enough, because parents do not care that a project appears on a government spreadsheet; they care when the doors open. That is why we have been working to strengthen accountability around school construction, improve the capital process and make sure projects move forward more quickly. When taxpayers provide billions of dollars for school infrastructure, they deserve confidence that those projects will be delivered responsibly. Our responsibility is also to make sure that the education students receive reflects the world they will enter when they graduate. The Ontario economy is changing, technology is changing, the labour market is changing. Students need strong foundational skills, but they also need a clear understanding of the opportunities available to them. That means exposing students to skilled trades, it means strengthening financial literacy and it means modernizing curriculum—and it means ensuring students understand that there are many different pathways to a successful career.

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

Thank you, Minister, for your presentation. We will now begin with questions and answers in rotations of 15 minutes for the official opposition members of the committee, 15 minutes for the third party member of the committee, five minutes for the independent member of the committee and 15 minutes for the government members of the committee for the remainder of the allotted time. As always, please remember to make your comments through the Chair. For any staff appearing today, when you are called on to speak, please give your name and your title so we may accurately record it. Thank you. Now, I will go to the official opposition. I recognize MPP Pasma.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

A university degree is an excellent pathway for many students; college is an excellent pathway; an apprenticeship is an excellent pathway; and entering the workforce with practical skills is also an excellent pathway for many students. Our job is not to decide a student’s future for them; our job is to make sure that they have the skills and information necessary to choose that future for themselves. Mr. Chair, I’ll talk briefly about child care. The ministry’s responsibility for Ontario families, as you know, begins well before kindergarten. This week, our government announced that we reached an important agreement with the federal government that will provide greater stability for Ontario families and for the child care sector. Ontario and Canada have agreed to a four-year extension of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement through March 31, 2031. Under the extension, Ontario will receive nearly $12 billion in federal funding over the next four years. This is obviously an important step forward. For some time, our government has been clear with the federal government that the funding originally provided for its child care program did not reflect the actual costs of delivering that program in Ontario, and we were pleased that the federal government has recognized the need for additional funding. Now, as part of the agreement announced this week, Ontario will maintain current child care fees at an average of $19 per day until June 30, 2027. That provides families with certainty and provides greater stability for child care operators across the province. But our work is obviously not finished. Over the coming year, Ontario will continue to work with the federal government on a sustainable path forward for the child care program, including discussions about Ontario’s share of the additional $5.4 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. Our objective throughout these discussions has been straightforward: We want a child care system that works for Ontario families and is sustainable over the long term. It is also important to recognize that Ontario’s commitment to families and early learning extends well beyond the federal child care program. Ontario has made significant investments in children and families for years. We fund universal full-day kindergarten across the province. We support EarlyON child and family centres. We support families through the CARE tax credit and other provincial child care and early years initiatives. And we continue to invest in creating new child care spaces, including spaces alongside the new schools we are building in growing communities. This week’s agreement is important progress. It provides stability for families and the sector, and it recognizes the funding pressures Ontario has been raising with the federal government. Chair, the estimates review is fundamentally about accountability for public money, so I want to be clear about how I approach the responsibility. Successes in education cannot simply be measured by how much government spends. Governments are always very good at announcing large numbers, but a dollar spent is not automatically a result achieved. The question must always be, what did the investment accomplish? Did more students learn to read? Did math results improve? Did a student receive the special education support they needed? Did a new school open in a growing community? Did a teacher receive better classroom resources? Did a parent get an answer they otherwise would not have found? Did a student graduate more prepared for what comes next? Those are the questions that should drive decision-making throughout the education system. Ontario is making record investments. We are putting more resources into the classroom. We are building schools. We are supporting special education. We are giving teachers direct access to classroom supplies. We are strengthening family supports for parents and families. At the same time, we are demanding greater accountability from the institutions responsible for delivering those services. These two things are not in conflict; they go together. More investment should mean greater accountability for outcomes. Chair, Ontario has dedicated teachers and education workers. It has engaged parents, it has talented students, and it has taxpayers who continue to make an enormous investment in success. Our responsibility is to make sure our education system continues to improve. We should acknowledge progress when it occurs, but we should be willing to ask difficult questions when outcomes are not improving, and we should be willing to challenge the systems that are not delivering for students. Because, ultimately, education policy is not about institutions. It’s not about structures. It’s about graduating a student walking across the stage when they are ready for the next chapter of their life. That is what the billions of dollars contained in these estimates are ultimately for. That is the standard against which I believe we should measure ourselves. Our government will continue investing in Ontario students. We will continue supporting the teachers and education workers who serve them. We will continue building schools in growing communities. We will continue to support parents. And we will continue insisting that every part of the education system remains focused on the reason it exists in the first place: student achievement and student opportunity. With that, Mr. Chair, I turn it back over to you and eagerly anticipate the questions.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Thank you for being here, Minister. I appreciate that you mentioned transparency and accountability and difficult questions this morning, because that’s what estimates is all about. Diving right in: When you announced the $750 to teachers for school supplies this year, I think there was some sense of relief. Because even though teachers shouldn’t have to buy their own supplies any more than surgeons or construction workers are expected to, there was at least some sense of relief that this was going to mean a significant new influx of supplies in our very under-supplied schools, because it sounded like this was all new money. Now, we find ourselves this fall with a portal that didn’t even open in time for the new school year in 19 boards. It doesn’t cover all teachers. It’s charging higher prices for supplies than in store. It doesn’t allow teachers to order all the supplies they actually need—but it does let them buy drill bits—and, in some cases, it won’t even deliver supplies for more than a month. On top of that, it turns out it’s not even all new money; $300 out of that $750 is coming out of the existing supply budget, which means that teachers are now being told by administrators that they need to buy more supplies than they did before. Some teachers are telling me that between the need to buy more supplies and the higher prices being charged through the portal, they’re going to end up paying more out of pocket this year than they ever have before. So I think when you talk about success in education not just being government spending but about results, this is failing to deliver the results that teachers and parents and students should be able to expect. I have got a few questions about this, starting with: You said you’re investing $66 million in this program. Is that $66 million all new money?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

No; $40 million of it is new money. What we have done is that teachers across the province of Ontario were already supposed to have received an allotment for their classroom supplies from their principals. We found for many teachers that that allotment did not always reach teachers. It ranged from $100 to $300. What we said is, “Let’s take that $300 that you’re already supposed to be getting. For teachers, let’s add another $450 on top of that. And as opposed to leaving it with the principal and hoping that they will give the teachers access to that money, we’ll give it directly to the teacher.” So that’s how the $750 is allotted to each homeroom teacher.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

But it’s not each homeroom teacher. It’s each elementary homeroom teacher. It doesn’t provide any funding for secondary school teachers who also have to buy supplies. It doesn’t provide any funding for teachers who don’t have a homeroom, which includes music teachers and phys ed teachers who definitely need supplies for their classroom. In a school that has a lot of French immersion, like in the OCDSB—but it actually excludes one third of elementary school teachers. These teachers are now being told that they have to beg their colleagues to order supplies for them. What about student achievement in those areas? Why don’t they deserve resources in their classroom? Why don’t those teachers also deserve support for buying school supplies?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Those secondary school teachers have access. There has been no reduction in the available resources for secondary school teachers with respect to their classrooms—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

But if $300 is coming out of existing funding, then there is a reduction in funding available for them—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Not at the secondary level. There has been no change to that funding. Ms. Chandra Pasma: But boards have an allotment for school supplies. Now, a part of that allotment is going towards this program for elementary school teachers, which means that there is an overall reduction in the amount of funding that is available for school supplies—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

That is incorrect.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

—for all other teachers. So that does mean a reduction for secondary school teachers. It does mean a reduction for these teachers who don’t have an elementary school homeroom. You are actually taking supplies out of these classrooms and forcing these teachers to pay more money out of pocket. This is not focused on student results, and it is not focused on the success of every teacher in the province. How many teachers are actually getting the $750?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

The last count—and my officials can correct me if I’m wrong: Over 61,000 elementary schools have accessed the portal of that. There has been incredible uptake from them. I guess the premise of your question, though, is actually proving the point. If you’re suggesting that giving teachers access to the funds that they were already supposed to have access to would cause reductions in other areas, I guess it really does prove my point that teachers were never getting access to it. But there have been no changes at the secondary—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

It does not prove a point. What it proves, Minister—

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

One at a time.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Okay. I’m going to reclaim my time—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Sure.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

—because you’re not answering the question that I asked—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Well, you’re not giving me enough time to answer, but go ahead.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

—and apparently you don’t understand that when you have a fixed pot of money and you are directing something to something entirely new, then there is less money for what that existing funding was going to. Now, I have heard—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

It’s not new, though. I guess that’s where we disagree. The funding is not new.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

I have not asked a question yet, Minister.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

I know.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

I have heard frustration from teachers that for even something as simple as a homeroom class number change—so they’re not getting a new class assignment; it’s simply the number of the homeroom class that changed—they’re getting booted out of the portal. And this problem can’t be fixed without going up all the way to the Ministry of Education, which is taking weeks to resolve this problem. Before, the ministry didn’t have any role to play in local school board procurement. So this is new work that’s being done by the ministry, and it’s apparently taking them multiple weeks to do this work. What is it costing the Ministry of Education this year to administer the program?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

It is the boards who are giving teachers access to the portal.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

They may be giving them access to the portal, but when there is a problem, the boards can’t resolve it. It is having to go all the way up to the Ministry of Education. So you talk about bureaucracy and red tape; that is what your program has constructed.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

I think that the fact that 61,000 teachers have accessed the portal and there is a significant amount of teachers who are acquiring—I’ve heard a number of teachers who have texted me; one just last night said that the first time they accessed the portal—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

I’m going to reclaim my time, Chair, because this is not answering the question that I asked. When you say 61,000 teachers are getting it, what proportion of teachers is that in the province of Ontario?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Sixty-one thousand represents the homeroom teachers in the province of Ontario.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Yes, but what proportion of teachers is that overall in our education system in Ontario?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Again, it is just specifically for elementary homeroom teachers. It does not include secondary teachers—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Okay, but the question that I asked was for a number. What’s the proportion?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

I don’t have that off the top of my head.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Okay. I would appreciate it if the ministry would provide that to the committee, actually. Will you do that?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

No, you can simply find out how many teachers there are and divide that amount yourselves.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Well, there’s transparency and accountability for us.

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

One at a time, please.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Moving on—and I hope this is an area where there will be some transparency and accountability—you just started spending taxpayer dollars on advertising to try to convince parents that everything is amazing in education. How much money is being spent on this advertising campaign?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

You would have to ask that of the President of the Treasury Board.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

That’s ironic, because the President of the Treasury Board said on Monday that she couldn’t answer for you and that the funding was coming out of the Ministry of Education.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

The money does not come out of the Ministry of Education; it comes out of the general advertising budget of the province of Ontario.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Okay. There seems to be a significant difference between what the President of the Treasury Board believes and what you believe. But you’ve mentioned repeatedly that student achievement comes first—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

I mean, if you could find it in my estimates—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

—and funds need to benefit the student in the desk—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

By all means, I’ll admit to being wrong if you can find it in my estimates—

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

One at a time, please.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Sorry. Minister, I don’t have much time to ask questions on behalf of the people of Ontario, so I would appreciate it if you would respect the time that I have to do that. You said student achievement comes first and funds should be going to benefit the student in the desk, so what’s the public benefit of these ads? How is it benefiting the student in the desk that you’re advertising to parents, telling them, “Everything is amazing. Don’t believe your eyes. Don’t believe what your kids and their teachers are reporting”? How does this benefit our kids?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Well, I would say this: Our union partners are spending millions upon millions of dollars tearing down the system—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Chair, I’m going to reclaim my time because that is not answering the question that I asked.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Shocking.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

What is your advertising budget for the whole year?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Is there an advertising budget? I’ll just turn to my officials. I don’t believe there is an advertising budget. Yes, it’s zero.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Oh, interesting, because a script was leaked from your ministry that shows you are preparing attack ads against teachers in the middle of bargaining. So who is paying for those attack ads against teachers?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Any advertising that is done in the province of Ontario is done through the government advertising—the exact name, I don’t know, but the Treasury Board will authorize that. You would have to look through their estimates for that. The Ministry of Education does not have an advertising budget.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Again, that’s really fascinating, because there is a lot of distance between what the Treasury Board president and you are saying about this funding. Moving on to another area—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Again, I stand corrected if it’s in my estimates, by all means—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

I didn’t ask a question, Minister. You’ve appointed eight supervisors, and you said you had to do that because of board deficits. How many of your eight supervisors have submitted a balanced budget for their board in the 2026-27 school year?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Again, as I said, with respect to advertising, if you can find it in my estimates, I’ll be happy to correct the record on that. With respect to board supervision, the eight supervisors have yet to balance the budget, but we have seen an overall improved position, I think, of over $30 million across the system by some of the changes that were made across the supervised boards.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

That’s a fascinating answer, because when you look at what the total cumulative deficits that are projected by school boards are this year, it’s $186.7 million. What’s the total deficit of the eight boards that you’ve put under supervision? It’s $135.79 million, so 73%, almost three quarters of the total cumulative deficit, is from supervised boards. How many teachers and education workers have your supervisors cut without even balancing their budgets?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

As you will know, that is a significantly improved position on where they were the year before, as a matter of fact. Under the supervisors, we have seen—again, my officials, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s over a $30-million—over $30 million?

Official source

Interjection

Fifty million.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Oh, sorry; I stand corrected. Supervisors have returned $50 million, so that is good—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Chair, I’m going to reclaim my time, because again—

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

One at a time, please.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

I appreciate that. With respect to your question, I’m not—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

I’m going to reclaim my time, because this is not answering the question that I asked, so much for transparency and accountability—

Official source

Mr. Anthony Leardi

Point of order, Chair.

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

I recognize MPP Leardi with your point of order.

Official source

Mr. Anthony Leardi

A question was asked and I would be interested in hearing the minister’s answer to it.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

I would too, so I’ll reiterate, Minister: How many staff have your supervisors cut to not even balance the budget?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Staffing decisions are made, usually, in April. I think what you’re referring to is, in February, March and April of every year, when there are surplus notices that go out to teachers estimating the enrolment that might happen in September. As we say every single year, the final number is matched by the actual enrolment that happens in September. At this point, I’m told, not only across supervised boards but across much of the system, that much of the surplus teachers have actually been recalled and that we haven’t seen any long-lasting layoffs or removals or firings as a result of supervision under the boards.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Well, Minister, what was publicly reported is 1,623. I can tell you, it doesn’t just include teachers; it includes education workers. I can tell you that, speaking with teachers and education workers across these supervised boards, many of them have not been returned to our schools and that it is having a significant impact. But what’s the total amount in dollars that went towards supervisor salaries and expense accounts in 2025 and 2026, and how much are you budgeting to pay them for salaries this year for them to not balance the budget again?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Yes, the salary for supervisors. They have, I think it’s up to—it’s $2,000 a day for a maximum of three and a half days of work. I think the absolute total comes to, again—it depends. On the larger boards— Interjection.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Yes, $350,000, and at the smaller—Near North, it’s a bit less. So at the larger boards, a maximum of $350,000, and at the Near North board—it is a smaller board, so it is less than that. I think it’s $1,400 a day, maximum three and a half days of work.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

But how much did they actually bill, and how much have you actually budgeted for this year?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

I budget the full amount, obviously. The supervisors, to my understanding, have billed less than their full entitlement.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

So have you budgeted for additional supervisors to be imposed this year?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Well, we’ll see if there are boards that I haven’t budgeted for, but if there are boards that don’t meet the expectations of student achievement, then, as I said in my remarks, we will not hesitate to step in. I’ve been very clear, right from the beginning, when I took this position, that if a board failed to meet our expectations—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Okay, I’m going to reclaim my time, because this is no longer answering the question that I asked. You say supervisors are billing less than they could, so how many days on average are your supervisors actually billing for work?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

I don’t know. I don’t call them up every day and say, “Are you working today? Are you working tomorrow?”

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

One minute remaining.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

What I look at is the achievement that they’re providing in the boards.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

But the whole point of billing the board would be that they’re submitting invoices to the ministry in order to receive their income. So surely the ministry is tracking how many days these supervisors are billing—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

They’re paid by the board, not the ministry.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

And surely, when you want to be transparent and accountable in every single part of the education system in Ontario, that should involve reporting what is the Ministry of Education being invoiced.

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

They’re paid by the board.

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Okay, but you get all of the board’s financial reports, so how much—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

As do you, and as does anybody, so you can find those—

Official source

Ms. Chandra Pasma

Yes, and I can tell you that the OCDSB financial statements are considerably less transparent than they were before you imposed a supervisor on it. And because there are only a couple of committee meetings that are actually happening in public and nobody is allowed to ask any questions, including the media, nobody can actually tell how many days they’re billing.

Official source

The Chair (Mr. Brian Riddell)

Thank you, Minister. We will now go to the third party. I recognize MPP Collard.

Official source

Mme Lucille Collard

Thank you to the minister for his presence today in this presentation, giving us some information that we would like to dig into. I will concentrate my questions on, surprisingly, French education. I want to start talking about constitutional right to access. Of all the kids who have a right of access to French-language education in Ontario, only 59% have access. That’s according to an FAO report from 2023. That means that 109,000 kids did not have access to a francophone school. Since that report, can you tell us if there has been any increase in access, and what the numbers are for kids that have access?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Thank you for the question. I don’t have updated numbers of what access is. But one of the things that you would have noticed recently in the Putting Student Achievement First Act was the minister’s ability to take a more proactive role when it came to capital decisions. One of the reasons we did this is because we heard from a lot of the French boards that they were not getting access to schools that were surplussed by the public boards. That was causing a very big challenge because they’re having to transport the kids a much further distance, and it was having impacts on whether somebody was going to send their child to a French-language school or not. This act allows us to intervene a little bit more quickly—what you’re seeing in a place like Near North, for instance. Their school is never being transferred over, right?

Official source

Mme Lucille Collard

That’s my follow-up question, because access is not just a question of having schools available, but it’s also having them available within a proper distance. In regions in the north, it’s a real problem—

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

Yes, 100%. And then transportation.

Official source

Mme Lucille Collard

So, are you doing any kind of evaluation or analysis of where that capacity is not met, where the needs are? And what kind of strategy are you using to make sure that some of the budget—you say there’s $1.6 billion allocated for new schools. How much of that is going to new francophone schools, especially in the regions where there’s none right now and families are forced to send their kids to English school because they won’t put their kids on the bus for an hour to get to a francophone school? What are you doing to improve that situation?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

This year marked one of the largest investments in new schools ever. Obviously, the boards direct us. They put their priorities towards us. This year was, I think, $1.6 billion, one of the biggest investments in new schools—

Official source

Mme Lucille Collard

How much of that to the French schools?

Official source

Hon. Paul Calandra

I don’t have the exact number of what went to the French schools.

Official source