Ontario to invest $1.3 billion in building or expanding 60 schools across the province, including the GTA, education minister Stephen Lecce said at a press conference in Oakville.
The funding, present in the 2024 budget, will target both classrooms and child-care spaces.
“This $1.3 billion in funding represents the single largest investment in school building in Ontario’s history,” Lecce said. “This historic investment today, this year alone, will help us create 27,000 new student spaces for modern learning and more than 1,700 child-care spaces across the province within our schools.”
Lecce said plans for speeding up the construction process, potentially cutting the time in half, will be implemented to speed up the process.
Barrie Barrell, a professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and expert in the integration of technology in education, said in an e-mail response that results are needed if this much money is being spent.
Barrell attended the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and still has close ties to the province.
“I find it hard to believe my province is spending this amount of money on schools, but if they are I expect great results,” Barrell said.
Finance Minister of Ontario, Peter Bethlenfalvy, said at the press conference the funding is aimed at addressing overcrowding and looking after the increasing population of Ontario.
“Over the next 10 years we’ve put forward a budget of $190 billion of capital to build things like these schools so that we can accommodate our population growth,” Bethlenfalvy said.
He said they are working towards building strong and much-needed infrastructure and assets that will prove beneficial for Ontario in the long run.
Rob Burton, mayor of Oakville, said at the press conference the move to create more schools was much needed for the province.
He said $1.3 billion put into new schools is a great leap forward.
“Our growing province needs the 60 new and expanded schools that this investment will create. I’m grateful for the support for new schools and good education for our kids,” Burton said.
He said Ontario is a province where people can grow and this step towards building more schools is a step forward to building future generations.
Patrick Daly, president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, said at the press conference this move is going to help in promoting 21st-century learning.
“A truly historic occasion, it holds out the promise in rapidly growing areas and indeed throughout our province of transforming the learning environments in which young people learn and grow, particularly in terms of technology and promoting 21st-century learning school facilities,” Daly said.
Zoya McGroarty, communications officer for the Toronto District School Board in an e-mail response said they are still waiting for final decisions from the government before commenting.