Ontario announces $500M for school, child-care projects

CBC.ca
April 21, 2022

Ontario's government will spend nearly $500 million this year to build and repair schools as well as create new child-care spaces across the province, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce announced Thursday.

That funding will both build and improve schools and create new licenced child-care spaces in Ontario, the province says, with spending planned for 37 school projects and 23 child-care projects.

In the end, the funding amounts to 15,700 new student spaces and just over 1,500 new licensed child-care spaces in schools, the province said in a news release.

"This is momentum, this is progress, this is what getting things done looks like," Lecce said during a Thursday morning press conference.

A CBC Toronto series from last September found that the province's total school repair backlog was, at that time, $16.8 billion. Toronto schools alone accounted for more than 25 per cent of that number.

The province says today's announcement is part of a commitment to provide $14 billion over a decade to support school construction and repair.

Lecce also announced Thursday that the province has also created a "rapid build" pilot project for schools that will using "modular construction" in an effort to speed up school construction. Five schools from across Ontario have been selected for that project.