I just came to know that Ontario needs 3.9 billion dollars to bring our education system at the level of 1994. It means after investing 3.9 billion dollars still we will be 10 years behind, it is unfortunate and disastrous. I really can not understand where our tax dollars are going . On March 20th Toronto Star also published one report on the condition of Toronto Schools, following is the article:

Crumbling schools need $1 billion fix
Dangerous pipes, leaking ceilings, outdated heating systems and aging electrical wiring are just the tip of the iceberg


KRISTIN RUSHOWY
EDUCATION REPORTER

The walls are crumbling down.

So are the ceilings. Window frames are so rotten that when it rains outside, it pours inside. There's lead in the water. Electrical systems are so antiquated that if someone plugs in a kettle, the power goes out somewhere else in the building.

These are some of the worst conditions in Toronto's public and Catholic schools, which need an estimated $1 billion in routine maintenance and major repairs and renewal, backlogs that have built up after years of inadequate funding for decades-old — even century-old — buildings.

"We need $100 million a year to address all of the (major) issues in our schools," said Richard Kalmin, manager of design and construction for the Toronto District School Board. The province, which funds education, provides only $42 million.

As a result, the public board now has an estimated $550 million backlog of major maintenance work, $90 million in yard maintenance and millions more in routine maintenance, such as fixing broken windows.

At the Toronto Catholic District School Board, there is an estimated $300 million backlog of major repairs and renewal, said Angelo Sangiorgio, superintendent of education, planning and facilities.

Part of the problem is that most of the provincial funding for building maintenance and renewal is based on a complicated formula that takes into account a school's square footage and enrolment — but not its physical condition.

For some schools, it means that emergencies — those that pose health or safety hazards — are looked after and everything else has to wait. A lot of the "behind the scenes" support — repairs and improvements to aging boilers and leaky roofs — gets put off and costs go up every year, said Paul Lee, a project administrator with the public board.

"We just can't keep up."

In a recent tour of three public and three Catholic schools that the two boards say are among those in greatest need of repairs, maintenance experts pointed out numerous problems, including broken windows, peeling paint, leaking boilers and rotting floors.

Education Minister Gerard Kennedy has seen it himself. Two years ago, as opposition education critic, he took a tour of crumbling Toronto Catholic schools.

"We accept clearly, without hesitation, that we have to redress this," he said of the Liberal government.

In the next two weeks, Kennedy is expecting a report begun by the previous Tory government that reviews each elementary and secondary school in the province and puts a price to all necessary repairs. He thinks the total will be higher than previous estimates of $5.6 billion.

"I've asked (for the report) as quickly as possible. I want to consider it fully in anticipation of our (budget) decisions this year."

He also noted the provincial government now has an infrastructure ministry to address this "significant challenge" that affects all public sectors.

Funding for regular school maintenance is also under review, because inattention there leads to bigger problems — and costs — down the road, Kennedy said.

In the meantime, some schools struggle with single-pane glass windows that are inefficient and usually inoperable. Aging heating systems, too, are straining. They break down. And even when they're working, some rooms are uncomfortably hot, while others are downright cold.

At one Toronto school, deaf students sometimes have to wear gloves and mittens while trying to communicate in sign language.

Older schools also have trouble with public address systems, a safety issue because they're used to notify staff and students in emergencies.

Fewer caretakers and trades workers have bigger headaches to contend with. In some cases, where concrete stairs have eroded or hardwood floors rotted, there's nothing they can do.

"It looks like I never clean," complained head caretaker Leszek Kulpinski at St. Cecilia Catholic elementary school, pointing at blackened tiles in a classroom, tiles that are only a few years old.

"This floor looks dirty, but it was just cleaned."

While students may not notice corroded pipes or blackened tiles, they do notice peeling paint falling on their desks, or the loose tiles in a gym they trip over. One caretaker said a young child was hurt after tripping over loose tiles in a room.

Over in the city's east end, the head caretaker at Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute says the school, built in 1922, is "in desperate need of repairs."

"Preventative maintenance is really the key and it's really difficult to get preventive maintenance done now ... it's `wait until it breaks.'" said Norm Arding.

At Bowmore public school, head caretaker Steve Negovanlis uses desks to cover up buckled hardwood flooring to keep students away. A broken window is still in need of repair after seven months. Paint is peeling off the ceiling and walls may not be redone for years.

In some cases, students notice much worse.

"I had to sit through a class where urine was leaking through the ceiling," because of decaying pipes in the washroom above, Grade 12 student Meg Choi told a meeting where school and community members debated tearing down North Toronto Collegiate Institute.

"What part of this is worth saving?"

In the school, among those considered in the worst condition in the city, auditorium seats are held together with duct tape. Last year, chunks of brick started falling off the façade of the 90-year-old building.

It is just one of a few schools the Toronto board is planning to rebuild, largely because it's in a prime location and a portion of the land can be sold to finance construction.

That's not the case for most of the schools the two Toronto boards have identified as in need of the most work. Toronto's Catholic board alone has more than 80 schools it has deemed "prohibitive to repair" — meaning they are less expensive to tear down and rebuild than repair. The public has a list of about 30 schools it considers to be in the worst condition.

Even schools that are deteriorating are not in rough shape in every corner.

St. Matthew Catholic elementary, in fact, looks to be in quite good condition. Paint is peeling in places, and on the second floor a plaster hallway ceiling has starting crumbling.

But there's real damage in the belly of the school. There are water leaks in the basement affecting the foundation. The building, which has special education students, is not accessible and, depending on the class, students in wheelchairs have to be carried down flights of stairs.

At Danforth Tech, beside the bashed-in lockers, scuffed walls and peeling paint, is a stunning student-painted mural on an art-room door. The stained glass windows in the library, above the front entrance — recently refurbished thanks to community fundraising — "make this place look like a castle," said Arding.

The technical shop classrooms are more like dungeons. In part of the small engine shop, underneath the front entrance of the school, the walls appear to be falling apart, thanks to water leakage. The caretaker constantly sprays for mould. The beams supporting the front steps look to be on their last legs.

Every time it rains outside, one part of the ceiling in the pool area leaks so much so that the pool has to be shut down.

At Bowmore public school, water is leaking through the large bay window, which was fixed, but the wood window frame on the inside rotted and plaster started falling off. Since September, the cozy corner has been cordoned off with yellow "caution" tape, and books and dolls sit on the ledge surrounded by fallen plaster.

While there's no link between school performance and the condition of the building — North Toronto Collegiate, in fact, is almost always the top school on standardized tests — educators and parents say children suffer in other ways.

The public board's Kalmin said deteriorating schools tend to attract vandalism, while schools that are newer or have had additions are treated better. "There's a sense of ownership there," he said. "When it's disintegrating, there's a lack of pride in the school."

"It's demoralizing," added Penny Boyce-Chester of the Greater Toronto Catholic Parent Network, who recently met with Kennedy and told him this was among the most pressing needs of the board.

"Youth at risk are a big thing ... and when buildings (aren't maintained) ... students begin feeling that nobody is doing anything for them."

She said that in many of the city's secondary schools, poor ventilation systems or outdated electrical systems mean certain science labs just can't be done, or done properly.

While the problem is a huge issue in Toronto — which has more aging schools than other areas of the province — other boards are also finding their facilities in need of repair.

The advocacy group People for Education says 1,700 Ontario schools need repairs and upgrades to their electrical and heating systems, roofs and windows. Some 40 per cent of Ontario elementary and high schools need upgrades that haven't yet been approved, the group's 2003 report found.

And a government-commissioned report in 2002 recommended the province pump $2 billion over three years into building renewal to fill the gap.

"Of all the issues in education, the state of your boiler is the least sexy thing you can talk about," said Annie Kidder of People for Education. "For boards and schools, lots of times, there are things you just simply have to fix. If you don't have the money because it's not there in your budget, you have to take it from somewhere else."

While waiting for more funding, boards like those in Peel Region are going ahead with their own plans to revitalize buildings.

The Peel District School Board has just used $8 million of its $16 million for building renewal to finance a three-year, $100 million loan to "get at the most urgent of our problems," said board chair Janet McDougald.

The other $8 million is reserved for things like safety maintenance of roofs and boilers.

The board has 165 schools that are 20 years or older, and at least half of those are more than 40 years old. At the same time, because of phenomenal growth in the area, it has built 37 new schools and 45 additions since 1998.

"When you look at our checklist, we were looking at things like science labs, shops, family studies areas and libraries, all those kinds of things that are in the curriculum that principals identified as not in use because (their condition) doesn't match up with the curriculum and technology," she said.

While the board is spending $100 million, its actual need is $400 million, McDougald said.

"So the $100 million is going to address 25 per cent of our issues."

Cathy Dandy of the Toronto Parent Network said her group has done surveys of schools for health and safety hazards and will look again at the issue.

"I think time is fast running out" for the government on this issue, she said, adding the rate per square foot for general maintenance of schools is lower than what Queen's Park spends on its own buildings.

"We know these buildings are falling down. This is about investing in infrastructure."
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Thanks and regards.
Biomed

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

As we all know that the government here is basically fleecing its people.
The motive behind the article is to make the public aware that in the near future you will be paying more in taxes 'so just be ready'.
Most Canadians would have no problem paying taxes if they received equal value for their money. Studies on the efficiency of government services show that the value for each dollar in taxes returns less than 30 cents in service ; and the service received is about half as good as that in the private sector. The truth about how much Canadians are in debt, as I recently found out, shocked me beyond description. The total combined debt in every form, from every level of government in the country, is now over $5,100,000,000,000. That's right, with a "t." That's ten times the per capita debt of U.S. citizens.
You do realize that Canada's population is equivalent to California's population, or 1/10 of the entire US? Tax money goes to paying so many required to run the government.
You probably don't have to pay any taxes if you don't make any money. If you are poor and lucky enough to live in a country like Sweden, everyone else takes care of you. The people of Sweden, of course, are very highly taxed.
Some people worry that their hard-earned tax dollars are going to folks on welfare who don't deserve it.
So you pay some money and it goes to schools or roads or, if you're lucky enough to live in the right country, hospitals and health care. Some of it goes to old people. Some of it gets squandered on political lunches.
It's simple. Every time someone starts to hack away at government waste, they end up cutting the wrong things. It shouldn't work out this way, but it almost always does. Education, health care, social welfare programs are cut. People get hurt.
We understand how our tax dollars benefit those around us.
We also understand how much we benefit from other people's tax dollars. this is basically a two way street.
I don't mind paying taxes. I don't mind seeing my tax money fund social services, even though I don't personally agree with all the services funded.
Regardless of whether we stick to the current centralized system of government taxation or whether we move to the anarchist ideal of self-management, it's clear that providing social services and infrastructure is still going to cost money, and ultimately citizens will be responsible for part of that cost. One way or another, we will have to pay taxes, or we will lose social services that benefit all of us.

Very true Sahib !

Thanks and regards!
Biomed

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch