EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
The Ford government has increased the number of blue signs advertising provincial spending that school boards must erect on infrastructure projects.
The large “Ontario Builds” signs, which are a similar blue to the Progressive Conservatives' branding, are on display at hundreds of schools across the province.
The signs are paid for using the same stream of public dollars used to fund new schools and school-improvement projects they’re in place to promote, meaning they’re built-in to projects’ budgets. The costs of making and installing them vary from board to board, costing upwards of $25,000 in total in one board's case.
Ontario’s official Opposition leader, however, called the increase in promotional signage, outlined in a Ministry of Education directive earlier this year, “deplorable” at a time when many school boards are feeling a financial pinch.
In early February, the Ministry of Education told the leadership of Ontario’s school boards of “updated requirements” meaning that more signs would be put up at schools where the provincial government has approved taxpayer-funded capital projects.
“Ontario Builds signage will now be required for renewal projects … supported by provincial investments exceeding $250,000 or have a project duration of 90 days or more,” an assistant deputy minister of education instructed in a Feb. 5 memo.
Boards were also instructed to install a sign at a school within 60 days of a capital project being approved there and keep it up “for a minimum of 90 days” after its completion.
“All expenses related to Ontario Builds signage, such as design, production, and installation are the responsibility of the school board and may be considered a capital expense,” the Education Ministry’s Feb. 5 directive said.
The ensuing sign-erection spree has led some boards to display them at almost every school, according to what nine of them told The Trillium.
For example, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board (SCDSB) "currently (has) the signage at every school site as we have either completed a project or are planning an upcoming project at each location," a board spokesperson said. "That would make 16 signs in total for the school year as well as one upcoming," costing SCDSB "just over $7,000," its spokesperson said.
The big blue signs have cost boards as little as $100 to as much as $1,000 apiece to produce and set up at schools, according to those that responded to questions about them.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), the largest board in the country, said a couple of weeks ago that it had put up 253 signs so far, keeping their cost to about $100 each by having staff install them. These signs have cost more than $25,000 in total. In a report earlier this year, the TDSB estimated it would need to install around 400 signs at its nearly 600 schools, but the board said this number could change.
Durham District School Board (DDSB) said Ontario Builds signs have cost it $1,000 per sign to order and install, and that it’ll be putting up as many as 25 at its 135 schools this year, though there are additional “retrofit projects” that will require signage.
The Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) said it's installed 45 signs for school renewal projects this year costing $134.52 each — or around $6,000 in total. TVDSB, which about 160 schools in London, Ont. and the surrounding area belong to, put another seven up for new schools or school additions, costing $554.86 per sign — or close to $3,900 in total.
Ash Milton, a spokesperson for Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma, said Ontario Builds signage costs vary depending on the type boards order. Sturdier stand-up signs that are hammered into the ground can cost "around $500," whereas other flag-type signs can cost "$200-$300 based on size," Milton wrote in an email.
The Ford government has also required similar signs up for some of its other infrastructure projects, like at hospitals, or for Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, as Global News has reported.
Past Ontario governments have also required temporary signage promoting capital infrastructure projects where construction is taking place.
Before the “Ontario Builds” signs, the province — beginning under the previous Liberal government — required “BuildON” signs at certain provincially-funded project sites.
In December 2020, the Ministry of Education sent a memo to school boards noting the government’s recent introduction of “a new visual identity” for government infrastructure projects, and that “Ontario Builds” signs would be required at the construction sites for new schools, additions and child-care centres.
In a question-and-answer document attached to the memo, the ministry told boards to “please take down all BuildON signs that are currently posted.”
“If the work is still ongoing, and is anticipated to take longer than 6 months, please consider replacing the BuildON sign with a new Ontario Builds sign using the appropriate template. If the work is completed, please take down the sign,” the document said.
Asked about the updated Ontario Builds signage requirements at schools, Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles called them a “deplorable waste of money.”
“Every single penny that a school board has should be going into services that support our children, not promotion of whichever party or government is in power,” Stiles said on Monday.
The NDP leader said she doesn’t think parents are aware boards are required to pay for these signs, adding she finds it particularly problematic given the financial challenges many boards are facing.
More than 40 per cent of school boards are reporting budget deficits this year, government officials told a legislative committee last month. The Ontario Public School Boards' Association has said this “status quo is not sustainable.”
“Especially at a time when our school boards and our schools are under such stress and our kids need so much support that they're just not getting, it's shameful that the government would … expand that (signage) requirement,” said Stiles. “I don't think they should be covering it at all, school boards shouldn't have to pay for that.”
She said spending on “promotional” materials and advertising should “come out of one pot so we can see clearly how much they're spending and on what.”
Premier Doug Ford blasted school boards last week given three ongoing board reviews, two of which relate to spending on trips.
“[School boards] are the first to scream ‘they need more money’ and so on and so forth, and we’re pouring money into school boards, and they’re out partying and acting like a bunch of yahoos,” Ford said, referring to the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board spending $145,000 to go to Italy and purchase art and the TVDSB for spending around $40,000 on a three-day retreat at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
“It’s unacceptable. You’re elected; you have to respect the taxpayers’ money,” the premier said.
Milton, the infrastructure minister’s spokesperson, said of the timing of the increased signage spending that “these funds have already been accounted for in the funding school boards receive.”
“Recent direction was only to ensure it is used for its intended purpose,” Milton added.
Meanwhile, Liberal MPP and parliamentary leader John Fraser said the updated requirement is acceptable “within reason.”
“I think it's good that governments, in a modest way, indicate what work the government's doing on behalf of people,” Fraser said. “If the demands that we're putting on school boards and other organizations are expensive, then we shouldn't be doing that.”