Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

The <strong>Commission</strong> acknowledges that current provisions in some collective agreements may
prevent some school boards from implementing some of these measures. The willingness of
teacher federations and support-staff unions to agree to remove such obstacles should be a
consideration when the province decides, either through new provincial labour frameworks or
through its education funding policy, to fund wage increases by 2017–18.
School boards, teacher federations and support-staff unions may be able to lessen the impact
of the $1.06 billion in savings from larger class sizes and fewer non-teaching staff by agreeing
to compensation increases that are below the current settlement trends in the BPS. The
growth in wages across the BPS has slowed since the government introduced its restraint
policy in March 2010. 25 While the parties may be able to secure lower compensation increases
in the early years, the <strong>Commission</strong> doubts that it is realistic to assume that such a pattern can
persist through to 2017–18.
As indicated in Table 6.2, the <strong>Commission</strong> has identified other potential restraint measures in
non-salary expenditures related to textbooks, learning materials, classroom supplies and
computers. Permanent funding reductions in capital renewal and student transportation can be
considered, although they would remain the lowest-priority measures recommended by the
<strong>Commission</strong>.
The <strong>Commission</strong> assumes that school boards would achieve further efficiencies or seek
increases to other revenues to offset cost pressures from such items as benefits, utilities, fuel
and so on. The following recommendations, while not explicitly costed, have been developed
in this spirit.
We note in Chapter 18, Revenue Integrity, the province could increase revenues for education
by just over $1 billion by 2017–18 through raising the lower business education tax (BET)
rates. Additionally, we discuss a review of education tax rate setting policies for residential and
business tax rates to maintain a stable level of education tax revenues in real terms. Please
see Chapter 18, Revenue Integrity, for further discussion of education taxes.
25 Average annual wage increases in the Ontario BPS (excluding municipalities and federal employees) averaged
1.5 per cent for contracts ratified between April 2010 and Dec. 6, 2011.
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