Education minister open to eliminating Ontario school trustees

Ontario's education minister says the way schools are governed in the province is "outdated" and that, as he pursues a review, he's open eliminating elected trustees altogether.

Already, Paul Calandra has appointed supervisors who have taken over five of Ontario's biggest school boards. Trustees have been shut out of their accounts, and those appointees have been tasked with making decisions to improve boards' financial situations and avoid deficits.

But Calandra has consistently told all 72 school boards in the province they are on notice and must direct money to classrooms. He has talked of more centralization and creating greater consistency from board to board.

"The ministry needs to step up to the plate moreso than it has over the last 40 years," he told hundreds of municipal politicians Tuesday in Ottawa, where he and cabinet colleagues fielded questions at the annual conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

"We have to stop downloading responsibility to trustees who neither have the authority to tax or the expertise to undertake some of the things that we're asking them to do."

CBC News asked Calandra if he would go so far as to eliminate trustees in the province, even ahead of the next school board elections. Nominations are scheduled to open next May and the votes held alongside municipal elections in October 2026.

Everything is on the table and the governance model for education is being reviewed, Calandra answered.

"If it looks like we can deliver the product better, provide better outcomes for students, better resources for teachers, and give parents certainty, and if that means eliminating trustees, then I'm going do it," he said.

Calandra assumed the education file in cabinet in March. By April, he had put the Thames Valley District School Board in southwestern Ontario under provincial control after an investigation, spurred by news trustees having taken a retreat at an expensive Toronto hotel even while the board struggled with deficits.

Then, at the end of June, he announced the results of third-party reviews of the finances at Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB).

They too are now under supervision. Bill 33 has been tabled at Queen's Park to make it easier for the government to take over a board without an outside review.

The report from PricewaterhouseCoopers into the Ottawa-Carleton board found "no examples of reckless or deliberate wrongdoing, lack of financial oversight or governance or actions resulting in potential reputational damage."

But trustees in Ottawa had been struggling to avoid a fifth deficit, and have consistently said boards are underfunded, without enough money to cover special education, inflation, or to pay substitutes for staff on sick leave.

The OCDSB managed to make $18 million in cuts and pass a balanced budget in June. Now that the board is under supervision, they have been locked out of their accounts.

That access to accountable local trustees is critical as families navigate the education system, says opposition education critic Chandra Pasma, the NDP member of provincial parliament for Ottawa West—Nepean.

Pasma says she is concerned that without trustees, directors of education would be accountable only to an out-of-touch education minister in Toronto. She has watched developments in Quebec and Nova Scotia, where those provinces have moved to abolish boards.

"We're talking over 175 years of democratically elected school boards in what is now Canada," said Pasma. "Unfortunately what we're seeing now with this attempt to grasp more and more power is part of a pattern with the Ford government."

Ontario has 72 school boards, including public and Catholic systems in both French and English.

The education minister has consistently told them they are all on notice and must direct spending to classrooms, even as Calandra acknowledges there are many talented and hardworking trustees at many school boards.

"But ultimately the governance structure is based on a system that is outdated and old and that needs to be modernized, and we're going to do that work," Calandra told CBC News, noting the government will also respect the constitutional rights of French-language boards and Catholic boards.

"I don't foresee a situation where governance of our public English public schools remains the same," he added.