Dufferin Peel: Where have all the children gone? And the money?
TORONTO – It has become fashionable, almost obligatory, to condemn any “government initiative” involving monitoring of expenditures as an “extreme, ultra-right wing” attack on our rights. And so it is with the latest move by the Ford Government to bring the School Boards into line on their spending by placing several (five and counting) under direct supervision.
Readers who have been following our coverage of this “explosive” manoeuvre to introduce transparency and accountability in the management of a $39 billion sum of money, $30 Billion of which annually is “handled” by Boards of Trustees which rely on last minute information provided to them by Administrative Staff, will know we prefer to read the Reports by the Investigators before we proffer any opinion. These are a wealth (pardon the pun) of information – as befitting “conclusions” written by accountants: expenditures by the numbers.
In the case of the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCSB), which serves Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga, the funding model no longer seems to work.
The investigator notes that reasons are (in the main) a product of two primary problems. DPCSB is “one of a few school boards in the province that provides fully employer-paid long-term-disability (LTD). This was introduced in 1979 […] for phasing out its retirement gratuity obligations [to teachers]. Moreover, since changes in the bargaining Act introduced in 2014, it is now virtually impossible for DPCSB to resolve the deficit on its own. It cannot raise taxes independently.
Even more concerning should be the fact that DPCSB “over the past seven years [it] has been experiencing declining enrolment equal to 9,580 students or 12%”. At $13,300 per student, the Board is potentially missing out on $127.5 million revenue for spaces it has built and still paying to maintain. Every year, the negative cashflow increases. In contrast, revenues diminish.
Inevitably, the Investigator concluded as almost two thirds (66%) of Core Education Funding is driven by enrolment, the Board cannot hope to resolve the financial shortfalls by itself.
He cites that, as at the end of academic 2024-25, the board has 17,831 underutilized places. Only eight of every ten (79.8%) pupil spaces available are used.
Unlike the other Boards placed under supervision, DPCSB appears to have followed the directions of the Ministry. Honesty does not replace expenses incurred.
It is a Catholic Board and has constitutional rights. The Archdiocese may be loath to see it collapse.
