“The Ontario Public School Boards’ Association welcomes today’s announcement of up to $700 million to build or renovate health and safety-related projects in the education sector.
Throughout the pandemic, school boards have faced a wide variety of additional expenses as a result of the many actions taken to keep our schools safe for students and staff. In recent months, school boards have worked in collaboration with their school communities, the Ministry of Education, and public health officials to identify areas where more resources are required. These include improvements to heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, or renovations to enable physical distancing.
The requirement for projects to begin by September 30, 2021, and be completed by December 31, 2021, may make it difficult to use this funding for larger scale construction projects. OPSBA and our member school boards look forward to working with the government to put this new funding to use in our schools as quickly as possible.
Throughout the pandemic, we have emphasized the need for an ongoing conversation with respect to funding, given the fluidity of the situation. We will continue to advocate for school boards to receive sufficient funding to keep schools as safe as possible, given the circumstances, and school boards will continue to act in the best interests of our staff and students in these challenging times.”
– Cathy Abraham, President
