Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra warned Canada’s largest school board that the province will take over control unless they find savings and balance its budget.
Calandra made the remark during Question Period on Thursday when asked about the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) proposal to close some swimming pools and eliminate several music instructor positions to address its $58 million deficit for the 2025-2026 school year.
“The Toronto District School Board has been running deficits, multi-year deficits. What they are being asked to do is find savings of less than two per cent on an over $3 billion budget. Now, they did exactly what I expected them to do, right? They last night attacked students and teachers as opposed to finding savings,” Calandra said, referring to Wednesday night’s TDSB finance and budget committee meeting where staff presented several measures to balance the budget.