Waterloo region school boards welcome new repair funding from province
Funding will help address needs of elementary, secondary schools across the board
New provincial funding to help repair existing schools is welcomed and appreciated, two school boards in Waterloo region say.
The capital priorities program, introduced by the government on Monday, aims to provide school boards with funding to address upgrading dated facilities or building new schools.
Matthew Gerard, the coordinating superintendent of business services and treasurer of the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), said the funding program hasn't been active for over a year.
"Both our secondary and elementary enrolment are increasing," Gerard said.
In the 2018 to 2019 school year, enrolment on the elementary level increased by about 600 to 700 students, which is equivalent to an additional school, he says.
In the absence of the funding, the school board has still worked to accommodate students, he says.
Shesh Maharaj is the chief financial officer for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board and says momentum has "slowed considerably on all capital projects" that require the ministry's approval.
It's meant the board has placed "a plethora of portables at many school sites, and some schools are now at capacity for portables that can be accommodated," he said.
The province's announcement "perhaps signals the end of the drought," Maharaj said.
$15.9 billion backlog
A similar funding program existed in the past, but Ontario school boards have been without it for more than a year. That's after a Liberal government report calculated the capital repair backlog in 2017 totalled $15.9 billion.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the government has to do more to address the backlog and pledged to spend $13 billion over the next decade.
The Progressive Conservative government is asking school boards to submit funding requests for up to 10 major projects for the 2019 to 2020 school year. Gerard says it's better than what they've had in the past, when the government only wanted eight.
"We have a great number of needs within the system, but financial resources are finite in and of themselves as well," he said.
Gerard says he is working closely with the principals from each school to identify the needs of the buildings in order to determine the top ten list for consideration.
"We're working diligently through the summer to finalize that capital priorities program list so that we can submit it to the Ministry at the end of September," Gerard said.
Maharaj said some of their top priorities include a new Grade 7 to 12 school for eat Kitchener, two elementary schools in southwest Kitchener, a new school in southeast Cambridge, and funding to support the significant growth seen at St. John School in Kitchener.
The project's funding must be spent by 2023 to 2024.