5 main Ontario faculty boards which were underneath the direct supervision of the Ford authorities for a 12 months or extra have posted funds deficits regardless of the schooling minister blaming trustees for his or her monetary turmoil.
In June 2025, Minister Paul Calandra introduced he would appoint supervisors to the Toronto public, Toronto Catholic, Ottawa-Carleton and Dufferin-Peel faculty boards.
These supervisors had been despatched in to exchange trustees, who the schooling minister mentioned had overseen a collection of poor selections.
“There are selections which were made in every of those boards, the place they’ve chosen to keep away from accountability,” Calandra mentioned on June 27, 2025. “They’ve chosen to not convey their budgets into steadiness. Every board has a distinct problem.”
However after a 12 months underneath the administration of government-appointed supervisors, all 4 boards have introduced they’re, as soon as once more, within the purple.
The biggest deficit of the 4 boards was the Toronto Catholic District Faculty Board, the place a $39.5 million gap was solely $100,000 higher than the 2025-26 deficit overseen by trustees.
In Toronto Catholic, the funds deficit was $15 million — a drop from the $74.5 million workers initially projected. Ottawa-Carleton got here in with a “fastidiously deliberate transitional” deficit of $3.5 million.
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Out on the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District Faculty Board, the deficit was reported at $36.4 million — with the supervisor claiming $3.4 million in financial savings.
Ontario NDP MPP Chandra Pasma mentioned the truth that not one of the 4 boards taken over final 12 months had balanced their budgets disproved the federal government’s declare that trustees had mismanaged them.
“It simply exhibits how the minister’s narrative about why he imposed supervisors has all the time been false,” she mentioned. “The supervisors haven’t eradicated the deficits though a lot of them have made fairly important cuts that can hurt our youngsters.”
A spokesperson for Calandra’s workplace defended the supervisors, saying they had been making progress.
“Since supervisors had been appointed, practically $150 million in financial savings has been recognized by accountable monetary selections that don’t influence pupil studying in school rooms,” they mentioned, referring to the overall of eight boards that are actually underneath the management of Queen’s Park.
“These financial savings guarantee extra schooling funding is concentrated again on pupil achievement and never selections like worldwide journeys to purchase paintings or attending sports activities video games with public schooling {dollars}.”
The Thames Valley District Faculty Board, which has been underneath the management of a supervisor for greater than a 12 months, posted a deficit of over $22 million.
“This was all the time doomed to fail,” Chandra mentioned. “This was by no means about correctly managing our faculties.”
Since turning into schooling minister after the 2025 election, Calandra has targeted on faculty board governance, linking elected trustees to problems with dysfunction, wasteful spending and poor total monetary administration.
The Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District Faculty Board, which spent $145,000 on a visit to Italy and an artwork buy, was the poster baby of the federal government’s frustration.
The board, nonetheless, was by no means taken underneath the direct management of Queen’s Park, which did drive trustees to repay the prices of their journey. Brant Haldimand Norfolk posted a balanced budget this year.
The opposite high-profile instance of mispending for the federal government was Thames Valley, which put nearly $40,000 towards a visit to the Toronto Blue Jays Lodge.
There are at present eight boards in Ontario underneath the management of a supervisor, together with each main boards in Toronto and each main boards in Peel Area.
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