Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

Delivering Services More Efficiently: The Ministry of Education should be a leader in
promoting efficiency and reducing duplication. School board facilities and information
technology may offer effective platforms for co-operation with other ministries, especially those
supporting children. Boards should also continue to seek out opportunities to foster
procurement efficiencies through their expanded buying power. Important steps have already
been taken through the Ontario Education Collaborative Marketplace (OECM), a not-for-profit
procurement organization. Boards can work together to consolidate back-office functions.
The government should work with school boards, teacher federations and support staff unions
towards shared ownership and administration of benefit programs. Efficiency can also be
found by maximizing the value of school board capital assets. Where schools have been
closed or consolidated because of declining enrolment, school boards have surplus properties.
The minister should have the power to order the sale of unused properties, especially when
such dispositions could meet other needs in the BPS. An increasingly widespread solution to
the problem of underutilized schools is the consolidation of Grades 7 through 12 in one
secondary school. The province should encourage such consolidations by eliminating top-up
funding to underutilized secondary schools if they can instead accommodate Grade 7 and 8
students in their catchment areas.
Containing Costs of Retirement Benefits: The province and Ontario Teachers’ Federation
co-sponsor the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan; the province matches members’ contributions
even though teachers are employed by school boards, not the province directly. In 2005, the
plan revealed its first shortfall since 1990, and contributions have increased since 2007. In
2011, the contribution rate was raised and some future indexation benefits reduced. The
province should reject further employer rate increases and instead aim to reduce benefits. The
province should also consider raising the retirement age; the typical teacher retires at 59,
having worked for 26 years, and then collects a pension for 30 years. A higher average
retirement age would reduce the need for lower benefits in the future.
Promoting an Efficient Labour Market for Teachers: In the late 1990s, fears of a looming
teacher shortage prompted the government and universities to increase teacher education.
The province funded more spaces in faculties of education, and new programs were
accredited at several Ontario universities, as well as universities in the United States and
Australia. Since then, the number of certified teachers in Ontario has increased, but the
retirement rate has declined. The number of new teachers now exceeds the number of new
retirees by 7,600 a year. The proposal to convert B.Ed. programs to two years from one, with
enrolment in each cohort halved, will help to reduce the oversupply. Still, the government
should discuss the overproduction of teachers with Ontario’s 13 universities offering
teacher education.
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