Under the "good places to learn" program, the province will provide $280 million over three years for school boards. That money will allow them to obtain $4 billion in loans to repair, upgrade and replace old schools.
The initiative and the funding was announced in February. Yesterday, Kennedy outlined how this year's money — $75 million from the province, to obtain $1 billion for repairs in 1,400 schools — would be spent.
But the funding doesn't come close to covering the backlog of needed repairs.
Toronto Catholic board chair Oliver Carroll recently told the Toronto Star that it would take $5 billion to $6 billion over 15 years just to make Toronto's 750 public and separate schools state-of-the-art buildings.
As important as it was to balance budgets in the '90s, this is the fallout, as needed capital expenditures are over a decade behind schedule. Fortunately, some provinces are using the spoils of good fiscal management to catch up on these projects. Kudos to McGuinty for joining the list.
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