NDP Calls on Auditor General to Investigate Provincial Schools

QUEEN'S PARK – Official Opposition NDP Education Critic Chandra Pasma (Ottawa West—Nepean) urgently calls for an investigation by the Auditor General into the dire conditions facing students in Ontario's Provincial Schools. This call comes in response to a surge in complaints from concerned parents and educators who highlighted hazardous commutes, a lack of access to bathrooms, prolonged exposure to freezing weather, and inadequate learning facilities as contributing factors to vulnerable students falling behind.

"These are some of Ontario's most vulnerable students, enduring year after year in conditions no parent would tolerate—allegations of abuse, discrimination, crumbling buildings, and unsafe learning environments. Parents, teachers, education workers, and the union representing staff have all called on the Minister of Education to investigate and stop these horrific conditions. He ignored all their pleas.

In Ontario schools, no child should endure such conditions. The Minister of Education is responsible for adequately funding these schools, eliminating staffing shortages, addressing building disrepair, and enforcing enhanced safety and accountability measures to end allegations of abuse and discrimination. This is not too much to ask for.

There are no elected trustees here for parents to turn to, and the Minister refuses to be transparent with families. That's why we need the Auditor General to intervene. Chronic underfunding and constant budget attacks on our most vulnerable kids by the Ford Conservatives demand immediate action. An Auditor General investigation is the only way to compel some accountability from Minister Lecce. It's time to hold the Conservatives’ feet to the fire for failing our children.

The scope and severity of what we see in provincial schools cannot be understated. That is why we are asking the Auditor General to conduct a value-for-money audit and assess whether student experiences in provincial schools are consistent with the purposes of the Education Act.

It is time for the Minister of Education to take his responsibility to these schools seriously, make the investments needed for these students to have access to an equitable education, and put an end to the discrimination and abuse.”

Quick Facts:

• Ontario has four provincially-run Provincial Schools, which support English-language students who are deaf, blind, visually impaired, or deafblind.
• Unlike the Consortium Centre Jules Léger, which serves French-language students, these schools do not have elected trustees but are instead overseen by the Provincial and Demonstration Schools Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Education.
• Students, parents, and staff have been raising concerns for years about discrimination, abuse, and neglect at these schools.
• In 2019, the province of Ontario paid $15 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by former students at the schools. No new measures to ensure accountability at the schools have been introduced since then.
• A 2023 Ministry of Labour investigation at one of the provincial schools found that students' safety plans had not been updated for years despite multiple violent incidents and that the emergency response system utilized by the school was ineffective.
• The new safety plan implemented in response to the Ministry of Labour's investigation involves using cowbells to alert deaf teachers, staff, and students to an emergency.