I'm specifically asking for a commitment to reimburse all pandemic-related expenses incurred by the school boards over the past two years, to fully fund the TDSB’s pandemic recovery plan and to reinstate the enrollment stabilization funding, provide additional funding to cover cost increases related to employee benefits, utilities and other inflationary cost increases that are not currently funded by the ministry,” Brown said.
“We would have to find the $52 million in our budget as with the money that the province gives us, which means that we'd have to look at the programming, we may have to shift where we put resources to move it into the pot to pay for, to cover the $52 million. We may see decreases in staff. We're always worried that programming may be affected by this,” he said.
Earlier this week, the TDSB updated its three-year projection and recovery plan to cover the deficit by paying an estimated $12 million in the first year and $12 million in each of the following years.
Over the past two years, Brown said he has sent numerous letters to Education Minister Stephen Lecce that outline deficit concerns and request additional funding.
Brown also noted that the current Ford government doesn’t have “a good record so far” with funding for the TDSB as the government slashed almost $70 million of the board’s funding in the first year Ford came into office in 2018.
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