OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is applauding the Ford government taking action to cap the pay of school board trustees and limit discretionary expenses.

“The Ford government is right to limit school board trustees in small-time roles taking inflated paycheques from taxpayers while billing lavish expenses,” said Noah Jarvis, CTF Ontario Director. “Taxpayers can’t continue to give part-time politicians even more money when the provincial government is drowning in debt.”

The Ford government announced it is capping the honorarium of school trustees to $10,000 per year.

This change would significantly reduce the pay of trustees in several school districts.

Toronto District School Board trustees currently make an average of $25,000 a year.

Trustees for the Peel District School Board currently make $27,544 a year.

The government is also limiting the ability of trustees to bill taxpayers for non-essential discretionary expenditures.

These limits to school board trustees’ pay will address the ballooning cost of Ontario’s educational system. 

Education spending has increased by 34.8 per cent in the past five years.

“These important reforms will ensure part-time school board trustees are no longer giving themselves oversized paycheques and throwing around taxpayer dollars on waste,” said Jarvis. “Education Minister Paul Calandra’s reforms are especially important because our province is adding $28.8 billion to the province’s debt this year and education spending has been ballooning in recent years.”